


The Blood Series

by fallingprincess



Category: Bohemian Rhapsody (Movie 2018)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Vampire, F/M, Vampire Bites, Vampire Turning, Vampires
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-01-15
Updated: 2020-01-16
Packaged: 2021-02-27 15:27:20
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 4
Words: 25,339
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22269385
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/fallingprincess/pseuds/fallingprincess
Summary: Vampire!Ben x Human!reader**Your first encounter with the underworld leaves you to find hot waves of color and leads you to fall right into Ben’s cold arms. To stay you have to take a gamble, but is the vampire worth the risk when the stake is your life?
Relationships: Ben Hardy/Reader, Ben Hardy/You
Comments: 3
Kudos: 4





	1. Bloody Hell

**Author's Note:**

> I know this is on tumblr, I posted it there. This is my back-up so to say.   
> Lots of love! xx

You really should have known better than to agree to your friend’s endless pleas to finally go out with her, considering she was never up to anything good. But still, here you were in one of the sketchiest places in down; in a tight black dress that suddenly felt way too short and exposing for your liking.

Your friend had disappeared minutes upon entering the underground club and you were very close to just turning around and leaving. But how were you going to leave exactly? Her roommate had driven you here and you were not even sure of your location. So basically, you were stuck here, at least for a little while.

Warily you put one foot clad in high heeled black booths in front of the other, trying to keep your chin up high to not show any signs of weakness. You had immediately recognized what kind of club this was. Your parents had warned you about them since you had been a little kid. The underworld was no secret, it hadn’t been in a long time, but still, humans tried to stay as far away from it as possible. But the minute your eyes had landed on the first couple in the corner that were doing things that were definitely not making out you knew what was up. The second the overwhelming metallic smell had hit your nostrils you knew what you were getting yourself into. And your primal instinct was to run, but at the same time you felt weirdly pulled in by a magic translucent force. You were intrigued, you wanted to know more.

“Hello there, sexy, can I get you anything?” you turned to the black-haired man that had appeared out of nowhere next to the barstool you were sitting on as you looked through the menu. And once again, you should have run the second you saw the word ‘HUMAN’ printed on the front when the bartender had handed it to you. But still, you were here. Astounded. Fascinated.

“I was actually-“ you had begun just as another way deeper voice sounded to your ears from behind.

“Oy, Alex. I thought we were clear on you staying away from the youngbloods?”

You turned in your seat to take a look at the owner of the voice that seemed to have been permanently integrated into your brain by just one sentence. “What did you call me?” you asked just as your eyes landed on a tall and quite muscular built young man wearing an overly expensive looking black dress-shirt.

“Youngblood.” the man repeated with an amused smile that made you turn back to see the other guy had vanished into thin air. Maybe that should have been a warning sign to you as well. “That’s what we call the virgins here.”

You raised an eyebrow, confused about your own confidence as you met his eyes, the green way too vibrant for the barely lit room. He definitely was one of them. You could tell. There was just something about him. “Very bold of you to assume. And also incorrect.” You puffed and turned your attention back to the menu, but soon felt his presence on the barstool next to you.

“Thank you for clarifying that. But I meant your blood.”

“Oh.” you uttered, your eyes not leaving the menu although not reading anything. You intently hoped he couldn’t see or smell or feel the blush creeping up your face.

“Why are you here anyway?” he asked and you could feel his gaze burning all over your body. “You should run while you still have the chance.”

“I think I can handle myself, but thank you anyway. I appreciate it.” you stated with your newly found confidence and took a deep breath before looking back up at him. His neatly styled blond hair seemed brighter than the lights. And his eyes. God, his fucking eyes.

“Us vampires can be very compelling.” he grinned and you were pretty sure his irises changed into a much darker tone before turning back to their shiny selves half a second later. Wow. “Well then. Let me invite you to a drink since I ruined your chances with Alex.”

You smiled and nodded, picking the menu back up. “What’s up with him?” you questioned, trying desperately to sound nonchalantly and not as nervous as you felt. You were pretty sure he could hear your heartbeat going crazy. At least you thought he did. There were a lot of rumors and myths ranking about the underworld and this was your first encounter with it after all.

“He is fairly fresh. Doesn’t have himself under control yet. There have been a few incidents.” Ben explained death like it was nothing to him and gave the bartender his order. “He is really into youngbloods. But then again, who isn’t?”

You noticed the bartender staring at you and managed to tear your eyes away from the vampire’s full, red lips. “What do you recommend?” you asked him flustered, a hand nervously running through your hair.

“Depends on what you like.”

“Well, doesn’t it depend on what you like? I heard alcohol gets into your blood quite fast.” You smiled sheepishly. It had been a joke, but his slightly shocked expression made you question your own intentions. Surely you would not just let some random guy drink your blood. That was absolutely crazy. Right?

The man next to you quickly composed himself and after giving your order the guy behind the bar got to work a lot quicker than a human would have. You were fascinated, transfixed by everything. You couldn’t pinpoint it, but this place was filled with secrets and you were more than ready to discover them.

“So how could you tell?” you asked, your attention torn away from the fast movements behind the bar and back towards the vampire. “That I am new to this?”

“You don’t smell marked.” the vampire explained without hurry. “Every bite leaves a certain mark, a scent sort of. Humans don’t smell it.”

“What’s your name?” you kept asking and he seemed reluctant to answer all your pressing questions with a cocky grin.

“Ben.” he smiled just as your drinks were placed in front of you.

“I’m (Y/N).” you responded and took a testing sip of the red beverage. “Are you into oranges?” You chuckled as he cleared his throat about your boldness. “What is in yours?”

He raised an eyebrow, his eyes still eating you up. You had to admit you enjoyed having his full attention, your friend long forgotten; you were completely mesmerized by him and the glow he seemed to radiate off. “There is no blood in case you are wondering.” He got up and leaned closer to you, his lips carefully grazing your ear and pressing the lightest of kisses – if even that – against the side of your neck, before he whispered an “I am more into the fresh stuff.”

A shiver ran down your spine as you looked up into his darkened eyes. He hadn’t been lying, he really was compelling and you weren’t even sure if he was doing anything to you. Yet.

“Follow me.” His voice rang in a command and you were quick to grab your drink, walking after him as he cleared a path through the vibrating crowd in the darkness without a problem. He only stopped when the two of you had reached an empty black leather couch towards the back of the room. The intoxicating smell was even heavier here, the lights red and dimmed, the atmosphere reeking of sex, sweat, and blood. Somehow you wanted to absorb it all. What was happening to you?

“Would you answer some questions for me?” you asked like an overly eager first grader and set down your drink to sit down next to him, his cold thighs touching yours.

Ben leaned back, his eyes scanning the room and then landing back on you. “Sure.”

You were almost certain someone was about to approach you, but upon seeing your company they had quickly changed their minds. That was either a really bad or a good sign, you couldn’t quite decide. “How old are you?”

He laughed as he ran a hand through his hair, his eyes back to their sparkling and glowing green. “Somewhere around five hundred. And no, I do not look like a disco ball in the sun.”

You giggled into his shoulder and reached for your glass, the heavy alcohol going to your head quite fast. You should really make sure you stayed in control of yourself. “I wasn’t going to ask that. It must be cool; you know you saw crazy things happen. The rise of rock’n’roll. Hell the invention of electricity!”

“I also saw a lot of people die and experienced many wars. Humans never seem to learn.” he responded in a neutral tone with his eyes fixated on you in wonder.

You swallowed and studied him. He was beautiful, obviously, you had been told all vampires were, but you were almost certain he had been beautiful before he had become one. There was just something about his appearance, his hair, his jaw bones that made him incredibly handsome looking. But after five hundred years he was probably well aware of that.

“I guess I never thought about that.” Your eyes landed on a couple behind him, the woman’s teeth clearly buried in the guy’s neck, his eyes closed in a blissful trance. “What does it feel like? Being bitten?” you wondered aloud and felt the atmosphere between the two of you shift towards a previously unknown territory.

“It’s a drug you should stay far away from, youngblood.” he quickly snipped and downed the rest of his drink, his eyes becoming dark again.

“I heard it’s a feeling of pure euphoria.” you rambled on, your eyes still fixated on the scene in front of you while your fingertips subconsciously ran along the skin on your neck. You had barely even noticed your movement, but Ben seemed to not be able to look anywhere else.

“What it is is giving up full control.” he basically growled, his eyes more black than green now but he still had not made a move to shift closer to you. But you wanted him to. A very primal urge in you could not wait to get him closer to you. As close as possible. You had been warned. Don’t get too close. You won’t be able to run away anymore. It’s all over then. But yet, here you were. Ready to give him all he ever asked for.

“It’s complete surrender. An ecstatic feeling. It’s playing with fire.” he whispered on, his voice so deep it sent more shivers down your back. God, you wanted him, although you were not sure in what way.

You didn’t know what had gotten into you, when you leaned closer towards his face, your eyes staring at his closed lips. “Are you gonna be my gasoline?”

He didn’t answer, his mouth pressed closed as he stared at you, and you were mesmerized, fascinated, completely transfixed by everything about him.

You extended one of your hands, your finger running over his full bottom lip, barely touching it. “Can I see them?”

He seemed to hesitate but then opened his mouth slightly, two white fangs catching the red shimmering light in the room; his dark and lust-filled eyes never leaving your face.

In wonder and fascination your ran your fingers over his lip again, before teasingly pressing the tip to the point of one of his fangs, not even feeling the pain as it broke your skin. Completely transfixed you watched a single drop of blood pool on your pale skin before wiping it onto his tongue and pulling back. And god, you were not ready for the orgasmic moan that escaped his mouth as his eyes turned completely black while dark blue lines suddenly littered all along his eyes and cheeks. It was overwhelmingly shocking and incredibly stunning at the same time.

“You have no idea what you just did.” he stated is a growl, his voice lower than anything you had ever heard. “This is your last chance to go home.”

You stayed where you were, a hand propped on his thigh as you emptied your glass, the alcohol definitely adding to your confidence and courage. You leaned in again, forcefully pressing your lips against his; the strange feeling of his fangs against your mouth was something you never knew you needed so desperately. “Bite me, Ben.”

He growled again as his hand caught yours. “Not here.”

The next minute went by in a blur, quite literally, and you didn’t know how but suddenly you were not inside the club anymore and instead in the back of a cab, the car going fast through the starry night as tall buildings rushed by into nothingness.

**

“This is where you live?” you questioned as you followed him to one of the expensive looking apartment complexes you were walking by everyday to class. Why had you always assumed the underworlders would all live somewhere downtown?

“I have a lot of places I live in. But one of them is here, yes.” Ben answered as he unlocked the door and waited for you to enter. The cold air had seemed to calm him down, his fangs had disappeared, and his eyes were back to sparkly green. You hadn’t yet decided which look you liked better on him.

“It’s nice.” you smiled as you looked around and walked along the hallway, your entire body a jittery mess. Were you really going to let this happen? Apparently so.

It was the first time you heard his laugh properly and you about melted into a puddle at it. “What did you expect? A coffin?”

You blushed in embarrassment for assuming just that and then sat down on his couch. You noticed he still hadn’t left his position at the door, standing far away from you as he loosened the buttons on his collar. You craved him closer. Much closer. “Why are you over there?” Did it sound like a whimper? Probably. Maybe you should have cared, but…yeah, why even?

“Without the other people around your smell is quite heavy, youngblood.” he explained dryly, neither moving nor shifting.

You stared at him for a while and finally made a decision. You had gone so far, you were going to do this. You just needed to know. You quickly used the hair tie around your wrist to tie your long hair into a knot on top of your head and hereby exposed your neck to him completely. “I want this.” You met his eyes straight on, hoping to convince him that you were sure.

Half a second later he was already sitting next to you, your words all the consent he needed, one of his hands slightly pulling on your hair, his lips connected to your neck as he let them roam over your bare skin.

“You smell incredible.” he whispered lowly and you were sure had you seen his eyes they would have been completely black. “Bet you taste even better.”

God, you wanted to see him so badly. “Ben.” you whimpered against him and dug your fingers into his hair to pull his face away from your neck, a frustrated groan escaping him. “Can you bite something else instead?” After noticing his confused face you blushed again, making him even more frustrated to the point of hissing. “I want to see you do it.”

Your whispered explanation seemed to wonder him but he slowly nodded with a chuckle. “Five hundred years and I have never gotten that request during the first time before.” He laughed again, green shimmering through his black eyes. “You should be scared, you know.”

“I know. But I’m not.”

He kissed your lips much to your astonishment and interlaced his hand with yours. “Why not?”

You used a finger on your free hand to lift his chin up and ran your finger tips over the veins along his cheeks. “I don’t know why, but I trust you.”

He laughed again as he brought your hand to his lips to kiss it lightly. “I told you not to play with fire.” He turned your hand over, his cold fingers running along the palm of your hand and towards the underside of your wrist, the outline of your veins clearly visible in a blue tone. “Ready?”

You could only manage to nod and watched him lower his mouth to your pulse point in anticipation.

And then it happened. His teeth sunk deep into your wrist, his fangs piercing your skin, blood immediately pooling from the wounds. The second his tongue had swiped over the first drop you understood, you realized it all. Why people wanted more of this, willingly gave without wanting something in return. Your heart beating fast, cold and hot waves crashed down on you, an ocean of emotions and ecstasy about to burst from your chest. You were transfixed by the black around his closed eyes, the moans coming from his lips radiated through your arm and all the way to your head, making the fog heavier and the overwhelming pulsation in your lungs even stronger. Holy shit. You wanted to scream, from being deprived of this feeling all your life, the knot in your stomach finally rattling free, but all you could manage was a breathless sigh as your head fell back and your body completely relaxed against the cushions of the couch.

Time seemed to stop and pass as fast as possible at the same time and you only came to it when you felt something extremely cold being pressed against your wrist. Your head still tipped back against the dark red leather you opened your eyes to see Ben attending to your arm in a quite professional manner.

His eyes as green as ever he smiled, a row of white teeth shining at you as he wrapped a white towel around your wrist and pressed an ice pack on top of it. “Welcome back. Kind of lost you there for a minute.”

“Sorry.” you smiled shyly and ran a hand through your messy hair, the knot long gone.

“It happens. Drink this.” He handed you a glass of water and a chocolate bar. “And eat this. Your body needs the sugar.”

You eagerly tore the wrapper, biting into it as if it was your first meal after days. Your body was still pulsing, your mind still foggy, and you knew you were fucked. Because you already wanted more. And more. And more.

“So, did I taste good?” you asked sheepishly and studied the smirk spreading on his face as he sat back down next to you.

“You tasted incredible.”

You took the ice pack and bloody towel off to look at the aftermath of your first and certainly not last dip into the underworld. Your wrist was a little swollen, dark bruises already forming around the two deep holes right along your vein. You winced as you pressed a finger against it. How were you going to hide that one? It would take forever to heal.

As if he had read your mind – oh my god had he? – he tore your attention towards his eyes once more. “I didn’t want to heal you.”

“Why not?” you asked and finished your candy bar before emptying the water in one go. You hadn’t noticed how thirsty you were.

“Never experienced it, but it makes the euphoria last for way longer and I didn’t want to get you all fucked up for days your first time.” He smiled at the yawn that escaped your lips and without much thought you cuddled into his cold chest, not noticing the surprised look on his face.

“Next time.” you whispered right before your eyes closed and you drifted off on the vampire’s broad chest. The last act of surrender.

**

You awoke in confusion, your eyes landing first on the running TV and then on the blanket that was tightly wrapped around you. The first thing you noticed was that you were in fact in a bed and no longer on the couch meaning at some point Ben had moved you without waking you up. The second thing you noticed was that you were still smugly cuddled against his chest meaning he had put you back there on purpose. Who would have thought vampires liked cuddling.

He realized you were watching him and smiled shyly, his green eyes brighter than they had ever been. “Hi.”

“What time is it?”

“Four. You slept for two hours. You can sleep some more if you want.” His hands soothingly ran along your back and sent happy shivers of cold down your spine.

“I think I am okay.” you replied truthfully and winced again as you tried lifting yourself up with your wounded hand. You turned onto your back and looked up at him. “Can you heal this?”

The expression on his face shifted towards nervousness and you quickly retracted your question. “Did I do something wrong?”

He sat up straighter and watched you, anxiety crossing his eyes. “Believe it or not. I have never healed someone while they were completely conscious.”

You sat up as well, leaning against his side; sleep had still not fully left your brain. You felt like you had had sex for hours without end. Blissful, relaxed, content. You could get used to it. “Seriously? In five hundred years?”

He nodded and suddenly he didn’t seem as old anymore. He seemed like a young adult, like the most normal person in the world, a person that worried and breathed, not an immortal with no heartbeat.

“Would you?” you asked warily and extended your arm towards him.

He appeared to mull it over in his head but then brought his fingertip towards his mouth to bite into it, before lowering it onto your wrist.

You watched in awe as his blood hit your skin and winced at the drizzling feeling all along your arm as the wound slowly closed up until it had magically disappeared alongside his blood.

Once your wrist was restored to its previous state your eyes wandered up towards his face. “I don’t feel any different.”

You studied him with all your attention as he closed his eyes and leaned his head back against the wall with a heavenly and sexual sigh, a light smile spread on his lips as his body seemed to relax against the mattress and cushions. “I do.”

“Ben?” you carefully asked when you noticed he had gotten kind of limp and anxiety rushed through you when you realized he was not responsive. You were trained in first aid, but you were pretty sure that you had no clue how to revive an already dead person back into their dead self. What were you supposed to do? Smelling salt? You didn’t have that. Checking his breathing was obviously also not going to work.

In a panicked state you straddled his lap, the cold sending shivers over your bare legs and placed your hands against his cheeks. “Ben, come on, please.” you almost begged him, desperation in every syllable. What the fuck were you supposed to do? You had never even heard of vampires passing out. You didn’t know that was even a bloody thing. “A bloody thing! Of course!”

You awkwardly opened his mouth and pricked your finger against one of his fangs once more, before holding the drop of blood right under his nose.

“Come on, Ben.” you repeated again and a rush of relief ran through you when you noticed his eyelids moving and then springing open to stare straight at you.

“What happened?”

You couldn’t help but wrap your arms around his neck and quickly pressed a kiss to his cheek. “Thank god. You passed out. I got so scared.”

“Huh.” he simply stated and within a second had you sitting on the other side of the bed as far away from him as possible. “I’ll be right back.”

You waited for a while, zapping through his TV channels before settling on a comedy show to have noise running in the background. You found a large sweatshirt on the ground and didn’t hesitate to take off your dress and put the comfortable material on instead. You had crossed more than one boundary tonight anyway.

You barely recognized the door open and him rushing in quietly to sit next to you once more, now in sweatpants and a t-shirt, his hair wet.

“How dare you shower without me?” you smirked and winked at him before realizing how inappropriate that was considering you hadn’t even engaged in anything sexual so far.

He cleared his throat and studied you wearing his sweatshirt with a grin. “Sure, feel right at home here.”

You sat up and placed a warm hand on his cold thigh. “Are you okay? I know you are a vampire, but you are acting kind of strange.”

He cleared his throat once more and shrugged in a neutral manner. “It turns out that healing people when they are not knocked out kind of knocks me out. Who knew? Anyway…Sorry. I am just a little out of it. The sun is about to rise and all… Is it cool if I call you a cab?”

**

Three weeks and five days. That is how long you managed to stay away from the underworld, to tell yourself that you didn’t need what you deeply wanted. But you craved the adventure, the danger, the euphoria. Every day on your walk to class you were tempted to just knock on Ben’s door to surrender again, but you couldn’t. He had made that point fairly clear when he had called you a cab at five in the morning and basically had forced you to leave.

But you could not resist anymore and so you had found yourself back into the darkness of the club. The beat of the bass matching your heart’s, the smell of blood and alcohol intoxicating you upon entering. You were ready to forget all about your first encounter with the other world and to start over new, to find someone else to give you the fix you desperately wanted and your body ached for.

But maybe it should have been obvious that it was going to happen, and maybe you had even wanted it to. However, it didn’t stop you from placing down your drink and turning in your seat away from the handsome stranger in front of you and towards the familiar vampire. Ben was once more dressed completely in black, only his green eyes contrasting the darkness that was radiating off of him.

“Well if it isn’t the vampire that kicked me out his apartment in the middle of the night.” you spit out sarcastically and took another sip of alcohol. So what if there was orange in it, you definitely had not thought of him when ordering it.

He never hesitated as his eyes darkened and he leaned into you, his hands tugging your hair over your shoulder as his lips pressed against your neck. “Let me make it up to you.”

You were well aware that he already had you in the palm of his hand, his entire aura almost suffocating you. And you were absolutely ready to surrender once more. However- “And why exactly would I do that?”

He grinned cockily as his lips kept roaming along your bare skin, the cold somehow sending hot shivers down your spine. “I know what you crave. What you want. Why you are here. I’ll give you anything you ask for.”

You were so far gone you didn’t even care you were still in the club, the other people around you long forgotten. God, you wanted him. His words were only riling you up more. “And what is in it for you, Ben?”

He kissed along your neck, up your jaw, quickly faltering but ultimately pressing his full lips onto yours. “Let me heal you again.”

It was your time to grin as you noticed you had the upper hand for once. With a vampire. That one was quite unusual. You were used to tales about humans being used for their blood, or pleasure, or both. They were a waste product. Walking blood bags. But apparently that was not the whole story. “Could it be that maybe you are craving this just as much as me, Ben?”

He groaned against your neck and began sucking lightly but sure enough leaving a bruise. You didn’t know, but by doing so he had marked you as his for the night and everyone to see. You wouldn’t have cared anyway, you obviously were.

You sighed in pleasure at the pain, the teasing for what was about to come, if you only let it. “Alright, let’s get out of here.”

**

“Where do you want it?” Ben asked in a hurry before the door was even closed all the way. In a blur he had picked you up and a second later you were underneath him on his bed, his muscular body towered in plank position on top of you.

You lightly pressed your hands against his chest. “Ben, slow down.”

He nodded with a frustrated groan and slowed his movements to human speed but still didn’t stop basically ripping your dress from your body with ease. His eyes completely black he looked you up and down and began taking his shirt off as well, but you took his wrist into your hands to bring his motions to a halt when he was about to open his jeans.

He followed when you ordered for him to lie down onto his back and his eyes widened in surprise when you started kissing up his stomach and chest towards his neck, quickly sinking your teeth into the side of it.

You stopped abruptly when you felt him giggle and raised an eyebrow as you sat back up on his hips. “What?”

He kept laughing, his eyes a sparkling green, and pressed an innocent and sweet kiss against your mouth, his fangs not even bothering you anymore. “It’s just that it tickles. Feels more like a nibble, because, you know, vampire…human..”

Your eyes widened and then narrowed as a smirk crept onto your face. He wanted it harder? Well that could be arranged. With all your force and newly found determination you pierced your teeth into the skin of his neck once again and pulled back in shock when he hissed in pleasure and you felt cold blood on your lips. You watched as the wound immediately closed and licked the blood off your mouth, before you met his astonished eyes.

“Did I just poison myself?”

He laughed his Ben laugh, not the vampire one, and pulled you to his naked ice cold chest. “You’re fine. Just don’t die tonight.” His eyes scanned over you sitting on top of him in only your underwear and maybe you should have been a little self-conscious, but you felt more comfortable than you ever had with anyone.

“I have an idea.” he finally stated and flipped the two of you around in a second. “If you are up for it.” A kiss to your forehead. “It’s going to be painful.” A kiss to your nose. “But absolutely worth it.” A kiss to your chin. “I promise.” And finally a kiss to your lips as his tongue darted into your mouth for the very first time, cold meeting hot, but passion all around. You were careful not to hit his fangs, but didn’t quite manage to in the heat vibrating through you. Ben eagerly sucked the blood from your tongue, a moan escaping him as you felt him harden above you. This had suddenly taken a very different turn than you had expected.

“Stop, stop.” He grinned sheepishly when he pulled back after a while of making out and with your hands almost down his jeans. “I wanted to do something entirely different actually. Not that that wasn’t nice.” He winked at you panting under him, your hair a mess, you cheeks flushed. “Close your eyes and keep them closed, alright?”

You quickly followed suit and shut your eyes in anticipation. You almost jumped when his teeth sunk into your skin right below you collarbone without warning just a second later. But he never took the chance to taste you, his saliva never met the bite, the euphoric rush you had been waiting for all night never came. You were about to open your eyes in protest, but he was quick to press a kiss to your mouth to shut you up.

“I told you to keep them closed.” His growl did not leave room for discussion and you shut your eyes even tighter as he bit into the side of your left arm, a drop of liquid running down your biceps, but never being wiped away. What the hell was he up to?

The next bites to your stomach, hip, and thigh sent waves of pain and adrenalin through you and you were on the verge of tears as you swallowed down the aching in all your limbs.

“Can you take one more?” Ben’s voice ripped you from your pain right next to your ear and you quickly nodded, desperate for him to finally give you what you were here for, what you craved the most. You felt like you were on the edge of an orgasm but had it denied over and over and over again. Everything you wanted felt so close, but yet so far out of reach.

You almost screamed when his fangs dove into the skin on your neck for the first time and the frustrated growl that escaped his mouth vibrated through your body. You hadn’t even considered how hard it must be for him to see and smell all the blood without actually drinking from it.

“Are you ready?” he whispered into your ear lowly and you nodded so eagerly that it made him chuckle above you.

“This better be fucking worth-“ You silenced yourself when his tongue swiped over your neck, the familiar feeling of cold heat waves rushing through you from your head to your toes and back up. You were still in shock when his lips moved down your neck and towards the bite on your collar bone, lightly sucking on the wound, intensifying the feeling of absolute pleasure even more. You felt your heartbeat speed up as your breathing slowed, completely out of control, your moans mixing with his as he moved further down your body, giving each bite intense attention as he sucked on it, his tongue enthusiastically drinking up the warm blood dripping from them. This was heaven, or maybe it was hell, it definitely was something not from this world. Your hands twisted in his sheets as you felt another wave of pleasure rolling over you when he moved back to your neck, taking his time to tease it slowly with a light twirling of the tip of his tongue.

You managed to calm down a little with this, the fog in your brain slowly lifting, but your heart still going fast. Until something very unexpected happened.

A whimper leaving your lips made him smirk against you and his deep voice found the shell of your ear once again. “Ready?”

You never got the chance to ask what for as within a second Ben had switched the side of your neck, his teeth sinking into your skin and another wave of the most intense heat mixed with pain rippled through you. He dove back down, eagerly sucking on your neck, his saliva mixing with your blood as the last wave of pleasure crashed down on you like a tsunami that made you loudly scream his name and your eyes snap open in shock.

You panted as you came back to it, your mind clearing a lot faster now, and you watched Ben wipe the blood off his chin with his discarded shirt, a blissful and satisfied look spread on his face.

“What just happened?” you only managed to form a sentence a minute later after your breathing had finally slowed, your body still too weak to move.

“You” he pressed a closed-mouth kiss to your lips, leaving a metallic taste to them anyway. “just had an orgasm.”

You shook your head in disbelief before you felt the wetness pooled in your underwear for the first time; and it certainly wasn’t blood. “How?”

He just shrugged smugly and got up, returning a blink later with a water bottle and candy bars. “Aftercare. Want me to heal you?”

You looked up at him, lust still written in his dark eyes, and then shook your head determinedly although you could still feel drops of blood running down your hip bone and arm. “Not yet. Give me ten minutes until I am fully calmed down.”

He immediately understood your hint and grinned like a kid during Christmas. “You sure?”

“Definitely. Can you make me a coffee while we wait?”

**

“I think I am ready.” You smiled and placed the now empty coffee cup on the bedside table, the caffeine reviving your senses back to their normal state. “Sit back.”

He skeptically looked you up and down but did as told and you quickly straddled his hips and kissed him once. His head and back against the wall he watched you with an amused smile as you winced at the pain coming from folding over the wound at your hip.

“Go ahead.” you encouraged him and he nodded, an insecure smile playing on his lips as he bit into his finger and ghosted it over the bite underneath your collarbone without quite touching it yet.

You interlaced his hand with yours and guided him the last millimeters to press down on the open skin, the familiar drizzling feeling spreading through your side. After the skin had closed up, you moved your hands towards your stomach, pressing down on it as a content sigh escaped Ben’s lips. When your hands reached the third bite his eyes closed, his muscles seemingly relaxing under your body. You took the lead, letting his blood hit the next wound, a blissful smile spreading on his face. Once your thigh was healed, your entire body bubbling in a weird way, you moved towards your neck, his blood mixing with yours as you traced his fingers along your sensitive skin. From his expression you could tell he was long gone, lost to his high, and you were quick to heal the last bite before wiping his bloody finger on the even bloodier sheets.

You pressed a light kiss to his lips and cuddled tightly into his broad chest, before you let your eyes fall close as well. “Night, Ben.”

**

You awoke from a shifting underneath you and with a purr accepted the blanket that was being pulled over your still almost naked and aching body.

Since the sun still hadn’t risen you couldn’t have been asleep for more than an hour.

“Welcome back.” you smiled at his bright green eyes and watched in awe as he covered his face with his hands in embarrassment. If it had been possible, you were certain a blush would have spread across his cheeks.

“Being unconscious without having to almost die before is literally the best feeling in the world, let me tell you.” he finally stated with a content sigh and pressed a kiss to your forehead.

You giggled against his cold chest and peaked up at him over the blanket. “Are you going to kick me out again?”

He rolled his eyes with a deep laugh, before wrapping his strong arms around you, being fast on renewing the mark on your neck. “You are not going anywhere, love. Bloody hell.”


	2. Blood Lust

“Just once?“ you batted your eyelashes and let a fingernail run over Ben’s forearm in slow-motion.

With a light chuckle he placed the book he had been reading aside and instead put his entire focus on you, his eyes sparkling at you in a bright green. “How many times do I have to say no?” He let his hand glide into your hair as your head was lying on his thighs and used one of the strands to tickle your nose with. “Your iron level is getting so low that I can taste it, love.”

You sat up to be on eyelevel with him and protested. “I have been taking the pills. And it’s been a week. Come on!” The whine in your voice was embarrassing and you knew it. But it really had been a week without a high. Eight days to be exact. And you needed it. Class was killing you, the assignments just piling up without end and you just needed one night off of it, out off your mind, lost to whatever Ben wanted to offer you. So you had been more than excited when he texted for you to come over tonight, unaware of the fact that it meant scrolling mindlessly on your phone while he freaking read. Not that you minded cuddling with an ice block, it was just not what you were here for today.

His eyes fixated on you, his pupils dilating for just a second, daring you to say another word.

“I’ll say it one more time. No.” His voice was low and strong and left no room for discussion. But you were desperate, god you were craving him, the high, the colors, the waves, the pleasure.

You nodded obediently but began unbuttoning the top half of your black blouse, revealing the black lacy bra underneath. You knew that the lingerie wasn’t what Ben’s attention immediately darted to. Instead he stared intently at the spot right between your chest and collar bone. His spot. To your surprise it wasn’t your neck or wrist that attracted his blood lust - as you called it - the most, but right this spot of exposed pale skin.

Goosebumps formed under his fingertip as it roamed over your collarbones then downwards and you attentively inspected his face, the blue veins prominent on his cheeks, his eyes filled with darkness. You loved seeing him like this, the anticipation, the tension, the look before you had to surrender.

“(Y/N).” he growled and then pulled back, using his speed to move to the other side of the couch.

You looked up at him innocently, letting the silky material of your blouse slip over your shoulder and down your upper arm. Had anyone told you a few months ago that you would end up seducing a vampire so he would bite you, you wouldn’t have believed it. Yet here you were, sitting on his couch, your bottom lip tugged between your teeth as you simply watched him stare at you. “What’s wrong Ben? Is this tempting you?”

He closed his eyes, not daring to give you the attention you craved, and when he blinked them open a few seconds later the black had vanished and control had returned with a sparkling green. “No.”

You sighed in frustration as you stood up and worked fast to button up your blouse before reaching for your coat and purse that were hanging next to the front door.

“Where are you going?” he questioned, not leaving his position on the far end of the couch.

You spun to look at him once more, your hand already settled on the doorknob. “Well, it’s a Friday night. Since you are busy reading your book, I thought I would go out. I heard there is a great club downtown.”

He understood immediately and you had wanted him to. If he wasn’t in the mood to give you what you needed, you’d simply find another vampire to do it for you. There were always more than a few willing ones in the club Ben and you had met in two months ago.

You kept studying him, mischief spelled on your face, as his brows moved into a frown, and you were about to open the door when you found yourself thrown onto his mattress in vampire speed, your blouse already unbuttoned and on the floor.

You smirked when you realized your plan had worked out. You had had no real intention of going anywhere but home, but you were well aware of the fact that Ben had grown a liking in you. He would have told you he was worried about the other vampires killing you – you being an incident as he called them – but you knew it was actually because he had a very possessive nature and considered you his and his only. And you were alright with that. As long as you got what you wanted, which was exactly this.

You moaned his name as his lips travelled from your mouth over your jaw and down your neck. Your hands reached into his hair to see his eyes, the darkness had returned and you trembled in anticipation when he laughed, the veins on his cheeks pulsating in progress.

“I can’t believe you have that much power over me.”

His words made you shake even more and you quickly crashed your lips together in a heated kiss, now more practiced in not accidentally hitting his fangs. You felt him harden underneath you immediately and grinned as you forcefully bit into his bottom lip, well aware that it wasn’t hurting him in the slightest.

He moaned into your mouth and you rolled over so you were on top, your hair falling over one of your shoulders as you straddled his hips, rubbing against his black jeans for friction under your skirt.

“Please?” you practically begged, never stopping the movement of your hips, and he ultimately groaned.

“The things I do for you.” he laughed, his voice raspy and passion-filled and flipped you within a blink. “Come here, then.”

You eagerly pulled your hair into a ponytail but he shook his head, loosened your hair and gently laid it back to cover your neck and chest.

“At least let me have a little control here.” he whispered lowly into your ear and took all the time in the world to kiss along your jaw bone and over your cheek towards your mouth.

You whined against his lips as he pressed them against yours, but reluctantly allowed him to swipe his cool tongue along yours, hot meeting cold in its perfect combination once again. Any other time you would have been happy, over the moon really, with this, having him pound into you all night. But not tonight, your mind needed numbing and your desperation was through the roof, and you could just not take this anymore.

You were already about to pull back to remind him once more why you were actually here and that his distractions were useless, when his teeth bit into your tongue. Lightly enough to not accidentally rip it off, but harshly enough to draw blood you immediately tasted on your lips. You winced in pain and shock and your eyes shot open to find him already staring at you, his irises a dark green sparkle. He daringly raised an eyebrow before closing his eyes and connected your lips one more time. He took his time pressing tongue-less kisses to your bloody lips and you knew he was teasing when the metallic taste spread in your mouth. You should have known something like this was going to happen eventually. Him giving you a taste of your own medicine, quite literally.

When he finally reached his tongue into your mouth you sighed at the wave of pleasure that immediately hit you once his saliva mixed with the blood still slowly dropping from the bite on your tongue.

You kept kissing him feverishly as the endorphins ran through you in an accelerating speed; your heart beating a rhythm you didn’t know was possible as all your limbs and every cell breathed out a desperate ‘finally’.

Ben granted you all but one minute of pure ecstasy, his tongue still moving in synch with yours, your body reacting to all his cues as you completely surrendered to him and the feeling his lips on yours gave you. However, and much to your dismay, the feeling ebbed down rather quickly when he pricked his own tongue on one of his fangs with your mouths still connected, and then pressed it right back along yours, the bite healing immediately, the waves going flat a second later.

Your eyes shot open when he licked a drop of blood from your chin that must have rolled out and then dove down to suck a bruise into your neck to mark you as his, making all chances of another vampire helping you out disappear with it. “Are you serious?” you sighed, your chest still panting heavily. You had been so close to giving in to the stars and the pleasure and the heat and the cold. But no, Ben had to remind you once again that you were his and these were his rules. Bloody Hell.

**

“Woah.” Joe exclaimed as soon as he entered Ben’s apartment a few weeks later. “I was going to ask why you never answer our fucking texts, but I guess here is the answer.”

Gwil walked in behind Joe, who was already sitting down on the couch a second later with a beer in his hands, vampire speed to thank. “Holy shit it reeks of blood and sex in here.”

Joe looked at the demon with a sheepish grin on his face and motioned with his chin towards Ben who was leaning against the door frame to the kitchen, rum with coke in his hand that didn’t do much. “He is too busy for us. What’s two hundred years of friendship really, when you can fuck and drink yourself through half of the city?”

Ben laughed as he rolled his eyes and finally settled himself on the armchair opposite of the couch his vampire and demon friend were sitting on. “Yeah, remind me, why exactly are we friends again?”

Gwil laughed in a mocking tone and gratefully accepted the beer that Joe had gotten from the kitchen in the blink of an eye. “I haven’t seen you in the club, though. Where are you finding all these girls?”

Ben shrugged, thankful that he wasn’t able to blush and took another sip of his drink. He was not going to parade around that ‘girl’ had to be singular as a matter of fact. He knew his friends’ opinion on keeping humans around for more than the occasional fuck and to still their thirst. And that opinion was very low. And admittedly it had been his opinion for the longest time, too. But something had changed three months ago when he had met you. The fact that you had never been scared of him, just thrilled by his presence, had riled him up ever since and he found himself inviting you over more and more. He wondered about your well-being and he was shocked to find out he was basically eating out of the palm of your hand. Yet still, he just couldn’t stay away from you.

“Wait.” Joe stated, his eyes narrowed in concentration as the veins on his face became prominent. “It’s only one girl.”

Gwil gasped in surprise, a hand dramatically placed over his chest. “You didn’t even tell us you got yourself a toy, Ben! It’s been what…like a hundred years since the last one?”

“Just admit you didn’t want to share. It’s alright.” Joe added with a smug grin and rose his beer bottle in a toasting manner. “To Ben. I hope she is as good of a lay as she smells, man.”

Ben rolled his eyes again as he brought the glass to his even colder lips, the alcohol doing absolutely nothing to warm him up of course. He suddenly noticed himself longing for warmth, the body heat of a certain human being to be specific.

“So, tell us.” Gwil kept on nagging, his eyes constantly switching through a spectrum of colors. “How long have you had this toy of yours?”

“She’s not-“ a toy, Ben had wanted to finish, but stopped himself short. They wouldn’t get it. How would they? He himself didn’t get it. This had never happened before. But he was pretty sure it had to do with the fact that healing you got him off in ways no orgasm ever had in five hundred years. “Like three months. Good shag really. Lovely veins.” he corrected himself, a weird feeling rising in him at the words. Was that guilt?

“Well, I could definitely go for some.” Joe stated with a smirk and raised an eyebrow. “Care to share?”

Ben wanted to scream ‘NO’ from the top of his lungs, his possessive side raging wild, but instead he just shrugged again as more alcohol filled his empty stomach. “We’ll see.”

**

You heard the front door to Ben’s apartment open from the kitchen and then a lot of panicked yelling. Only dressed in one of Ben’s oversized shirts and comfy socks, a giant bowl of cereal that Ben had bought just for you in your hands, you quietly tip-toed around the corner.

Your eyes immediately fell to the man staring at Ben’s motionless body on the couch in a panicked state.

“What happened? Are you hurt? You don’t look hurt.” the man rambled on, worry filling his every word while he tried shaking Ben awake. By his darkened eyes you could tell he was a vampire just like Ben.

You watched him for a few more seconds, spoon in one, bowl in the other hand and then walked in the room confidently. You had no idea who he was, but he seemed to know Ben and you were certain Ben would kill him if he hurt you in the slightest bit. “He is fine, just high. Give him a few minutes.”

Two black eyes focused on you and you gulped as his body was suddenly towering right in front of you, the cold radiating off of him sending an unpleasant shiver down your spine. “I don’t know who you are or what you have done to him little human, but I guarantee you that vampires cannot get high.”

You swallowed, fear beginning to creep up in you as you kept eyeing Ben’s passed out body on the couch, silently begging for him to wake up. But you knew it would take a little while longer; he had only healed you about five minutes ago, if even, just enough time to make yourself a bowl of cereal. “Well, your guarantee is off. Ben is high. Just wait.”

The vampire did not seem to be the type to listen and his hand shot out towards your neck with force, squeezing it tightly as he stared into your eyes and practically straight into your soul. “Tell me what happened to him immediately.” You knew he was about to compel you by the way his pupils dilated. Ben had never done it to you personally, but you had seen him do it to other people before to get out of a speeding ticket or make a last minute reservation.

“Leave her alone, man.” God, you had never been happier to hear Ben’s growling voice and you took a deep breath when the hand around your neck loosened and then disappeared.

“You’re okay!”

Ben nodded and stretched as he got up, his eyes falling to his shirt on you and you had to think of the first night you had been at his apartment. Just feel right at home here. Who would have guessed that not even four months later you would? “Sorry, was a bit out of it. Right. Joe. (Y/N). (Y/N). Joe.”

You managed to smile and finally placed down the bowl on the coffee table to cling to Ben’s side, his protective arm wrapped around your waist immediately relaxed you. You wouldn’t have admitted it but for a second you had been very scared for your life back there. Around your personal vampire you tended to forget how dangerous the underworld really was, however in moments like this it became very clear again.

“Did you get into a fight?” Joe kept asking, his voice still filled with worry. Seeing two vampires interact this way fascinated you and you curiously watched as most of their conversation appeared to happen between their eyes, brown and green glowing brightly.

“No, I was just out of it.”

Joe was suddenly sitting in the armchair, a leg lazily draped over its armrest. “How?”

Still uncomfortable in the situation you mumbled a quiet “I’m gonna change.” and Ben pressed a quick but assuring kiss to your temple to calm down your nerves, before you hurried out of the room in slow human speed.

When you returned, now wearing skinny jeans and a tank top, you found them sitting on the couch together still in conversation their eyes both lightly darker than before.

“Let me try!” Joe exclaimed, but Ben shook his head rigidly.

“No. Find someone else.”

You walked over to him and he pulled you to sit on his lap immediately, his cold arms wrapping securely around you. Protectively or possessively? Probably both.

“What if it doesn’t work on someone else?” Joe protested and you had a premonition on what he was referring to. “I am your best friend, man. I saved your life like ten times already.”

“Oh, don’t pull that card on me.” Ben sighed and you were happy for his free hand interlacing with yours, when you felt fear creep up in you again, danger becoming more prominent.

You quickly swallowed it down, trying to sound composed as you interrupted their conversation. “Is this about the getting high thing?”

They both nodded and you noticed Ben smiling proudly at you for speaking up. A weird rush ran through you and you quickly stuck out your tongue at him, which only made him laugh more and you giggled against his shoulder in response.

“Ben won’t let me bite you.” Joe stated in the most neutral tone as if he was talking about the weather. “Because he is a selfish prick. You never had a problem sharing your toys before.”

You took another deep breath, your nails digging into Ben’s side in anxiety. “How about you stop calling me a toy and I let Ben bite me so you can heal me? Because I am not an object and I make my own decisions. Got it?”

Joe raised a skeptical eyebrow at your strong and serious tone, clearly not used to commands from a human, and you relaxed at the sight. He just had to learn to respect you. Just like Ben had rather quickly. You were aware of the dangers and risks, but you trusted Ben and with him by your side you felt strong enough to stand against anything the underworld had to throw at you. You might have been weak, but you were definitely not powerless.

“You sure about that?” your bodyguard vampire murmured against your shoulder blade and you turned to meet his green sparkling eyes.

With a nod you leaned in to kiss him on the lips, not caring that Joe was still watching with confusion written on his face. “I trust you, Ben.”

“Alright.” Ben threw another glance at Joe before picking up your interlaced hands and bringing them to his mouth. Within a second his irises had completely switched into a dark black and you once again watched in awe as he lowered his lips to your wrist. It was a view you could never get enough of.

A cry escaped you as his teeth pierced your skin and vein; however, his tongue immediately began lapping at the pooling blood. You had to admit, without his teasing the high and ecstasy that followed a second later only felt half as good.

Knowing it wouldn’t last you never let yourself get lost in the waves of emotions that rolled down on you and you panted only lightly when Ben’s lips left your wrist and instead his cooling fingers pressed tightly against the wound to stop the bleeding.

Asserting dominance, Ben’s eyes hit Joe once again. “You have to let her calm down a little first.”

Still a little light-headed you nodded and then cuddled into Ben’s cold side, his free arm wrapping tightly around you within a split second.

Since you had never really gotten high, Ben only getting so much as a taste from you, only the smallest amount of his saliva finding the bite, it didn’t take long for your heart to beat less rapidly and your breathing to slow down.

Shyly you extended your arm towards Joe who had patiently waited his turn the entire time as he had watched the scene, clearly still confused about the intimacy between the two of you.

In a blink he sat next to Ben, his cold fingers ghosting over your wrist and finally looked up at his friend for confirmation. When the vampire nodded, Joe bit his finger and then ran over the wound, the drizzling feeling immediately spreading through your entire arm almost painfully as the two holes magically closed up to blend in with your skin.

A few seconds of silence went by until Joe sighed. “Yeah, that didn’t do anything for me.”

You smiled apologetically and leaned against Ben’s chest, a yawn escaping your lips. “I’m sorry, Joe.”

“I don’t know why it didn’t work, man.” Ben stated, his brows furrowed.

“Probably because I should have bitten her.” Joe said matter-of-factly, his eyes still completely black.

You yawned again as you felt your eyes close involuntarily. Apparently having the blood of two vampires run through you in one night was too much for your body, who knew.

“I’ll take her to bed.” you heard Ben say and felt him get up from underneath you, your body cradled in his arms like it weighed nothing.

You smiled against his chest and hummed contently, almost asleep already. “We can try it next time, Joe.”

**

“Are you sure this is alright?” Joe asked for probably the tenth time and you sighed. The first few times it had been cute and you appreciated his newfound respect and wish for consent from you, but now it was getting annoying and awkward.

You leaned back against the headboard of Ben’s bed and nodded once more.

“I just want to state again that I hate this idea.” Ben’s voice rang from the large armchair in the corner, his arms dramatically crossed over his broad chest as he watched you and Joe’s every movement.

You sighed and looked at him to meet his darkened eyes. “I told you we’d do this somewhere else but you insisted on making sure I was okay.” you reminded him and he smiled a forced smile back at you, his lips tightly pressed into a thin line.

It had been a few weeks since you had first met Joe and since then the thought of having another vampire bite you had started to form into an obsession in your mind. How were you supposed to know if it would feel different to Ben’s bites? Maybe it was like sex and every person was different after all. And it wasn’t like this was cheating; Ben and you were far away from dating. You would consider yourselves to be friends with benefits; very bloody benefits so to speak.

Ben had obviously not been happy about the idea once you had brought it up, but the more you had obsessed over it, the more intrigued you had become and he had finally called Joe and that is how you had ended up on Ben’s bed with his best friend next to you.

“Go ahead.” you verbalized your consent a final time and looked expectantly to meet Joe’s darkening eyes, the sparkle of anticipation that had been visible in them just a second earlier now completely gone.

You tipped your head to the side, granting him full access and his lips immediately found your neck as he placed a few testing licks and kisses to your heated skin.

Your eyes shut tightly as his teeth sunk into your skin agonizingly slow, the pain sharp and blurring your vision. You trembled as you waited in anticipation and finally his tongue licked over the bite, a wave of emotion rolling over you. You expected the familiar feeling of relaxation and pleasure rumbling through your body, but instead a firework went off in your chest as your insides seemed to combust, your heart suddenly picking up a record breaking speed, your breathing going uneven and fast. You managed to open your eyes as you lost your sense of orientation and met the darkest black you had ever seen glowing from Ben’s irises that were basically drilled into you.

“Come here.” you managed to coax out, heat still rising as your body felt more like it was burning up from the inside with every passing second. This was different, much different.

Joe moaned lightly against your neck as he lustfully sucked on the bite and you felt yourself lose consciousness when the mattress dipped next to you and your eyes met Ben’s once more, this time right in front of your face.

His nose touched yours as Joe’s tongue swiped along your neck painfully slowly and stars sprung up in your vision, overwhelming you completely. The fireworks never stopped bursting, heat rising and falling, the tingling leaving a weird but positive sensation all over your body as the storm kept on crushing over. You closed your eyes when another wave of warmth spread through your chest, the relaxing feeling of pleasure finally settling in, and your forehead fell against Ben’s cold one, the coolness keeping you conscious once more.

You studied the veins on Ben’s cheeks and then smiled as you managed to close the distance still separating you. You placed your lips firmly against his and he eagerly responded by sliding his tongue into your mouth. You moaned against his lips as another wave rolled through you, the sensation of cold lips against your neck and mouth at the same time almost too much for you.

You hungrily kissed Ben back, feverishly swallowing his moans, thankful for the coolness in contrast to the heat still rolling through you.

You only noticed that Joe had moved away towards the armchair, when a hand repositioned you and you were lying on your back, strong hands in your hair as Ben kept pressing kisses to your face from above you.

You panted hardly and used the sleeve of your sweater to wipe the built up sweat from your forehead. “That was…something.”

You looked over Ben’s shoulder to see Joe watching Ben and you, a curious but critical glance in his still slightly darkened eyes. “You good?”

He simply nodded, wiping along his bottom lip with his thumb to collect the remaining blood. Your blood. “Very much so. You?”

“Yeah.” you answered breathlessly, eyes falling back to Ben on top of you. “Just a little riled up. Not used to that.”

Ben laughed and cut the tension in the room doing so. “What she tries to say is that I normally tenderly play with my food instead of going wild with it.” His body seemed to relax and you fondly ran a hand along the disappearing veins on his cheeks.

You heard Joe’s laugh for the first time, surprised by how lively it sounded, but immediately fixated back on the vampire above you when you felt a cold finger run along the side of your neck.

“I just washed these sheets.” Ben explained as he caught the drop of blood that had slowly inched its way from the wound down your neck about to fall to the mattress. You watched in trance, a different kind of heat pooling in you, as he maintained eye contact while placing the finger in his mouth, a content sigh leaving his lips.

“God, you taste so amazing, love. Can never get enough of you.”

You drowsily smiled up at him, not able to hide the blush on your cheeks that made him smirk even more and he had the audacity to fucking wink at you. You pushed against his chest playfully and bit your lip the way you knew riled him up. “Get off, Ben. Joe, it’s your turn.”

You waited for the vampires to switch places again, Joe now sitting up against the headboard. If you didn’t know better you would say he looked nervous, his curious eyes fixated on you. You tilted your head once more and waited for him to ghost his bloody finger over his bite on your neck, the drizzling feeling somehow a full-blown painful sting instead.

You closed your eyes, swallowing the tears bubbling up in you and only opened them when Joe mumbled a low “Shit.” from next to you. His hand fell heavily against your shoulder and his head tipped back against the dark wood as his body relaxed all of the sudden.

With a light giggle you got up, careful not to disturb him, leaving his passed out body on the mattress behind and pulled Ben up from his chair and after you towards the kitchen.

You were starting the coffee machine when you felt his cold hands wrap around you from behind, his larger body instantly engulfing yours.

“I am glad this worked. I was starting to think I am weird.”

You laughed at his confession and spun in his arms to face him. “Can I be honest?” You didn’t wait for his answer. “I prefer your bites over whatever that was.”

“I could tell by your face.” he grinned knowingly and stepped even closer, his cold body sending a nice shiver through yours. “That wasn’t your orgasm face.”

“I don’t have an orgasm face.”

“Yeah, you do.” he simply stated as he ducked down to suck a new bruise into your neck, his possessiveness finally getting the best of him. “And it’s all mine.”

You were about to play along with his dirty talk, when Ben stepped backwards. “Joe called.” Right, vampire hearing. “I’ll be back in a second.”

**

“So, I believe you now. And I get why you love it so much.” Joe began when Ben had entered and shut the door to his bedroom behind him. Whatever it was that Joe wanted to discuss, it was not something you needed to know. “But I have to say, you kissing her while I am drinking from her was dangerous, man.”

“I don’t know what you mean.” Ben answered, well aware that he knew what his friend was referring to. The ecstatic feeling heightened a human’s emotions. Mixing it with other forms of intimacy would ultimately lead to deeper feelings being involved. He knew this. His friend knew this. Every vampire knew this.

Joe rolled his eyes. “Don’t play dumb with me. I might be an evil creature, but she seems like a nice human. She is going to fall in love with you eventually. If she hasn’t already.”

Ben groaned and sat down in the armchair again to bury his face in his hands.

“You need to tell her vampires don’t feel love. I know you like her and enjoy having her around, but we both know it isn’t physically possible.” Joe’s voice filled with concern riled Ben up.

“We also didn’t know vampires could get high but you are clearly coming down from it right now.” he snapped back, his eyes not leaving the carpet in front of him. He knew it was stupid to argue, especially since he knew that Joe was in fact correct.

“It’s different Ben. We knew vampires could pass out, just not that there were multiple ways to it.”

Joe’s explanation made sense, obviously, but Ben still didn’t want to believe it fully. Or maybe he just didn’t want it to be true.

“You have to tell her you will never be able to love her. Because you are a vampire.”

Ben groaned, a weird emptiness beginning to fill his chest, the absent of warmth. “That’s the problem. I can’t.” Had he had a heart, he was sure it would have been beating in his throat by now. Instead he only managed to laugh dryly.

He could practically feel Joe’s intense stare after his unusual reaction. “Why not?”

Looking up at his best friend for the first time during the conversation, Ben sighed. Despair was written all over his face when the confession finally slipped from his cold lips, a painful expression engraved into the veins along his completely black eyes. “I’m pretty sure I am addicted to her blood.”


	3. Bleeding Through

“So you just want to leave me here and pretend like this never happened? Like I never met you? Like this didn’t mean anything to me?” you summed up Ben’s speech, the last words coming out as a barely audible and choked whisper.

“You are addicted to my bites. And I am addicted to your blood.” he explained again, his voice so filled with desperation and pain that it made you shiver. “Can’t you see how toxic that is?”

“We are not hurting anyone with it!” you coaxed out and tried to blink the tears away that had formed in your eyes. You shifted nervously on your kitchen chair, not able to handle yourself or this situation, the table between your bodies suddenly feeling like a war barrier.

He sighed, defeat present in his almost white eyes. You had ever seen him like that. His usually so composed self had been replaced with something you couldn’t quite pinpoint; and it just made the situation so much worse. “We are hurting each other.”

“I am not in pain!” you protested once more, another wall of tears daring to leave the corners of your eyes and you quickly wiped them away with Ben’s sweater you had stolen a few weeks back. “Why, Ben?”

“When was the last time you properly slept?” he asked, his voice raspy and deep, asserting dominance in his vampire way. “And don’t even try lying to me.”

You sighed and licked your lips while you fidgeted with your collarbones just to busy your shaky fingers. “It’s been a while.” It was true. What he had presented to you made absolute and full sense. But you didn’t want it to. You had known. A while now actually. At least a few weeks. You had realized rather quickly that you could not handle day to day life anymore if you hadn’t had your daily bite, your daily ecstasy, the daily waves. And without them the highs turned into lows and stayed that way. But you hadn’t minded too much. After all, Ben was more than willing to give you anything you needed, whenever you wanted. You couldn’t count the nights you had spent together completely lost in the cool heat and pleasure radiating between your bodies; just taking the other in, pushing each other further along. So yes, you had known. What you hadn’t been aware of, however, was that he was just as much infatuated with you as you were with him. You lived in a state of codependency, so fucking what?

“So you understand?” his voice low, his eyes darkening, his veins appearing slowly, it all didn’t do much good to your current state, especially since you hadn’t had a fix in almost two days.

Your hands running through your hair you nodded, a single tear managing to escape your eye and sneaking down your cheek. You didn’t bother wiping it off as you stared at Ben’s broad unmoving chest, a whisper on your lips. “You can’t take this away from me.”

His dry laugh made you look up, his eyes staring ahead at your cupboards without any emotion visible in them, not necessarily focused on anything in particular. “Do you think this is easy for me? I can smell you right now. All I want is you.”

You studied his eyes turning pitch black and your heart sped up instantly, your body preparing for what was about to come on instinct. “Then take me, Ben.”

You knew it drove him wild, but you couldn’t stop yourself from biting into your bottom lips, his eyes now hyper fixated on your every move. You were his prey, he was a hunter, and you wanted to surrender and offer him everything he could ever desire.

He leaned back in his chair and crossed his arms in front of his body, the veins in his arm more prominent than ever and closed his eyes quickly before opening them again to a dark green shimmer a few seconds later. “No.”

You sighed out of frustration, the tears long forgotten; your mind too riled up by the way his darkened gaze pulled you in. After all these months he had you completely and more than ever under his occult spell. “Please, Ben.” you whispered, content with the way the green in his eyes slowly vanished at your begging. “I understand everything you say. And fine, let’s stay away from each other. But… just one more time. One for the road. Please?”

You were practically shaking in your chair now, your subconscious had completely taken over your mind at this point. Nothing mattered anymore. You needed the high, you needed to feel. You needed Ben. Desperately and agonizingly much.

In the blink of an eye you were thrown onto your bed, the mattress dipping next to you as Ben positioned himself over your shivering body, his hands already in the process of taking your sweater off. “This is the last time. Understood?”

You nodded feverishly, fidgeting to rip your tank top off although you knew it would have happened much faster without your help. God, you wanted him so badly.

Staring up at him with hungry eyes you watched as he took you in, his hands wandering over your breasts and coming to a halt on your neck, the veins in his eyes bold and black against his pale skin. “Fuck.” he whispered as he kissed his way from your collarbone to your lips and back down, stopping at the curve of your neck to suck a final dark red mark into it; marking you as his for one last night.

You winced in pain when his fangs pierced the skin behind your ear unexpectedly and almost cried out in desperation when his tongue didn’t run over the wound, but instead caught the droplets of blood running down your skin against your shoulder.

“Sorry, love. Couldn’t resist.” He licked another tear of blood from your collarbone and then pressed a passionate open-mouthed kiss against your lips, the metallic taste that his tongue left not even bothering you anymore. “God, you taste amazing. How am I going to live eternity without this?”

You whimpered underneath him, stars of desperation clouding your vision, his cold body weight only adding to the want and longing that came from deep within you. “Ben, please. I need you… Bite me.”

**

The way you surrendered completely to him combined with the taste of your blood still resting against his tongue turned his mind into fog and he desperately tried to ignore his instincts on biting into your neck and sucking you completely dry. But that didn’t mean that not every cell of his undead body was yearning, screaming for exactly that. For the pleasure of warm hot liquid running through his throat and straight to his brain. It was crazy how after all these months his body still reacted in the exactly same way to you than it had the first time back in the club, the second he had first laid eyes on you.

He let his mind wander into the fantasy of wrecking you, of having you come undone underneath him, of hearing your moans against the shell of his ear, of the high that followed him afterwards. But he couldn’t. He had made a promise to himself and he intended to keep it. After all, promises were the only thing that really lasted in a meaningless life-time filled with immortality.

He finally sighed and ripped his thoughts back towards reality, to your burning hot body shaking underneath him in want. Waiting. Crying. Offering itself entirely to him. He could hear the blood flooding your veins, he could almost feel it pooling into his mouth, the way your heart sped up at his touch; if he only bit you.

He dove down again, his lips catching yours for one final conscious time and then let his head rest against your shoulderblade, the feeling and smell of your blood running through your neck against his cheek not making this any easier for him. “I’m so sorry.” It was barely a whisper and maybe he had imagined it leaving his mouth, but he had meant it nonetheless, with everything he had in his non-beating heart.

Collecting all will-power he had been storing since his death five hundred years ago, he pushed himself upwards. His eyes automatically found yours and blinked a few times to numb his thoughts and the screaming of his instincts. God, you were beautiful; he just could never get enough of the sight.

His eyes fixated straight on yours and he watched as your irises widened alongside his until your body ultimately relaxed under his touch. He let his fingers slowly run through your hair as he held the gaze, the compelling words not daring to leave his lips just yet. Why did this have to be so hard? But he knew he had to. This would make things so much easier for you. And he could handle being the carrier and sole protector of all your memories and shared moments. Forever.

He licked his lips, the aftertaste of your blood still lingering on them, and then composed himself as he repeated the words he had practiced and rephrased over and over for the past two days. “When you wake up, you will not remember ever being bitten by a vampire. You will not remember the feelings you discovered through it.” He paused, his not-breathing chest suddenly feeling heavier than before. “And you will not remember meeting me or anything that has ever happened between us.“

Your body still limb underneath him he felt single tear leave the corner of his eyes and he blinked it away in wonder as this hadn’t happened in a few decades, thus interrupting the compelling in the process.

He watched as you came back to life under him, your eyes darting around, a soft whimper leaving your mouth as your legs wrapped closer around his body; the warmth spreading through him a feeling he wanted to bottle up and keep forever.

When you realized he wasn’t as frustrated, as desperate as you anymore, you stopped your motions and watched him nervously. “Ben, are you alright?”

He made sure to snap out of it fast enough, the memory of the previous moment already locked in a cage and stored in the back of his brain with all the other stupid shit he didn’t want to deal with. His voice deep and dark he smiled down at the anxious giggle leaving your lips. “Yeah, sorry. Are you ready, love?”

You eagerly nodded and he reincorporated it before diving down to pierce his fangs into the spot on your chest that was his and his only. For him to cherish and remember. For eternity. The blood immediately filled his mouth and he automatically darted out his tongue to collect it, the endorphins from his saliva making you moan against him. God, how he would miss that beautiful sound. He made sure to give you as much as he could, his tongue licking and swiping over the wounds as if his life depended on it. Taking it all in he couldn’t suppress the groan that left his lips, the sweet warm liquid now running through his body making him feel more alive than dead, even if only for a few minutes. For these few short moments you and him were one and he couldn’t remember ever feeling more complete in his long and blood-filled life.

He blinked up at your face, your forehead glistering with sweat, a satisfied smile on your face and grinned against your chest before closing his own eyes, keeping his instincts in check as he sucked more blood from your chest. Carefully studying your body’s blissful reaction, he only stopped himself when he felt you still under him, your brain dancing right on the edge of passing out. He normally rarely pushed you into this state; he enjoyed your presence and laughter after the bloody part was over way too much. However, this time it was necessary.

With a last wish goodbye Ben darted his tongue against his fang; his own blood mixing with yours and his saliva on your skin giving you the last straw you needed to knock you entirely unconscious. He watched the wounds close up, his mind filled with nothing but numbness, and lifted himself off of your body, the cold instantly returning to his chest. 

So this was it.

He looked at you again, unknown feelings rising inside him as he pressed a short but unusually emotional kiss to your lifeless lips. “Hell, I wish I could love you so badly.” he whispered to no one but himself as his mouth still ghosted above yours and then hastily pulled back. Wiping his face he stepped backwards, forcing himself to tear his eyes off of you before he was able change his mind about this.

Then he closed the door behind himself.

And this was goodbye.

–

The second Ben had opened the heavy doors to the underground club a lightning broke through him. The smell instantly hit his nostrils and intoxicated his brain, his normally so cold body completely set on fire within a second. He turned to his best friend, a pleading and desperate look written on his face as a barely audible whisper left his lips. “Joe, she’s here.”

**

“Where do you want it, princess?” the vampire murmured into your ear, his cold hands wandering along your barely covered sides to rest against your hip bones.

You looked up at him, hunger in your eyes as you were pressed against the wall in one of the back hallways of the club. You swallowed, carefully studying his blacked out eyes that were still waiting for your response, your consent. “My neck?” you finally stuttered out, anxiety and excitement rising in your voice as you shuddered against his touch. “Sorry, I am a little nervous. This is my first time.”

A short brownish glare ran through the black in his irises as he raised his eyebrows in what seemed to be a skeptical way. “If you say so, love.” He leaned back in, his right hand darting up to swipe hair from your naked shoulder, a low groan leaving his mouth as his cool lips ghosted along your burning hot skin.

You shivered as his teeth lightly grazed the side of your neck, the hair on your arms involuntarily standing up at his teasing.

“Ready?” he asked again, his voice filled with more lust and want than you had ever heard before and he left lazy kisses against the side of your neck, just waiting for his prey to be done running.

You nodded and readied yourself for the pain of his fangs piercing through your skin, the sudden rush of emotions and adrenalin you had read so much about. But it never came.

Instead, an incredibly deep voice yelled loudly behind you and made the vampire still connected to your skin turn in place to shield your body away protectively.

“Get away from her! Now!” the other man, judging by the prominent dark blue veins under his eyes also a vampire, hissed with a dangerous glare in his darkened eyes.

“Do you know him?” your protector asked over his shoulder and you were thankful for his hand still protectively placed against your waist as you peaked around his side to watch the other vampire carefully.

Danger was radiating off of him as he stormed closer, his blond hair a mess, the black shirt clashing with his pale skin. But his eyes, you had never seen something glowing so brightly but darkly at the same time. You could not stop staring at them.

You quickly shook your head and denied as you kept on observing the vampire from afar, unable to tear your point of view away from him as a strange feeling of familiarity settled into the pit of your stomach.

“You heard her.” your vampire shield growled and his grip on you tightened in anger. “Fuck off.”

Before you had the slightest chance to realize what was happening, an arm had wrapped itself around your middle as a strong hand aggressively pulled your head to the side. Not even a second later a cold mouth had replaced the lips you had felt just a minute before. You were shocked about the sigh that left you as a comfortable shiver ran down your spine while a tongue made work on sucking heavily on your burning skin.

Unfortunately, the feeling had disappeared as fast as it had arrived and you gaped in shock as the blond vampire glared at your previous company. “There. Now leave.”

“What the fuck, man?” the other man yelled as he threw up his hands and stormed backwards, his eyes shining in a dark brown light. “Fuck it, this isn’t worth it.”

You watched him leave, heat pulsing threw you as you were now left alone with the new vampire in a dark and vacated hallway. His eyes slowly faded from black into a beautiful green shimmer and your instincts warned you to be scared, to at least be worried or concerned, but you felt magically drawn to him, the feeling in your stomach only amplifying when he shyly smiled at you. 

You let your fingers roam over your still dampened neck, a pleasurable sting running through you, and glanced up at him, his presence seemingly overshadowing everything else in the dark hallway.

“Who do you think you are?” you finally asked, the words coming out a lot more frustrated and raged as you had anticipated for them to.

You had been fighting with yourself about coming here for weeks now. A strange desire pulsing through you whenever someone mentioned the underworld, whenever you saw someone on the street that definitely belonged into it. And you had tried to stay away, tried to keep your mind off of it, but soon it had consumed your every thought, your every dream, and you had no longer been able to resist the magnificent pull this place had sent your way. And here you had been, ready to finally find out what exactly it was you were craving, but this arrogant whoever he was just had to interrupt. So yes, maybe you had every right to be riled up after all.

“I’m Ben.” he smiled, now more brightly, and his eyes started glowing in an impossibly vibrant green straight through the dark.

You rolled your eyes and willingly tried to stop your heart from picking up its beat at his low deep voice. “That’s great.” you groaned as you placed your hands against your waist. “Why did you do that?”

“He was going to hurt you.” he hissed, anger rising in his face as he let his back fall against the concrete wall.

You laughed dryly –almost sarcastically- and bit your lip, unaware of the way he immediately stared at the motion. “In case you weren’t aware: I wanted him to.”

He didn’t reply. Instead he only kept staring at you, his eyes scanning over your body in your tight black dress, certainly undressing you in his mind, until he finally fixated on a spot of bare skin right below your collarbone.

You could feel yourself burning up just from his presence, another wave of shivers running down your arms at the same time, leaving goose bumps on their way. “Are you at least going to finish what your friend started?”

He chuckled as he tore his gaze from your chest to your face and you were surprised by how lovely it sounded. “He wasn’t my friend. And no. I will not.”

“Well, then.” you pushed yourself off the cold wall, your head spinning although you hadn’t had much alcohol, and walked a few feet away towards the main area of the club. Although you were weirdly drawn towards the beautiful stranger, you were here on a mission that still needed fulfillment after all. “I guess I will find someone else to do the job then.”

“Good luck with that lovely mark on your neck.” He suddenly stood right next to you, his words barely a whisper into your ear, warmth spreading over your face as you inhaled his cologne you were sure you had smelled before. “You’re mine for tonight.”

You took a deep breath to collect courage, still confused about your lack of fear, and then turned to meet his dark green eyes. “I thought you didn’t want to bite me.”

His laugh did things to you that you couldn’t quite explain and when he raked his fingers through his hair, another sensation of familiarity rushed through you. “I don’t.”

You tore yourself away from his broad chest and the way his glowing eyes seemed to steer you closer to him like a lighthouse. It felt as if you heard a knocking in your mind, but you just couldn’t find the right door to open. But you desperately wanted to know what was waiting behind it once you did. “There are still enough demons and other underworlders around to keep me company. So thank you for nothing, Ben.” A weird shiver ran through you as his name left your lips and you shook your head to compose yourself and clear your mind before making your way back towards the club.

You had almost reached the door when his groan cast another spell on you from the other side of the room, your body unable to move any further, no matter how much you begged it to. “Fine. I’ll bite you. Just…don’t leave…please.”

You turned again, one hand nervously clutching the hem of your dress, the other tapping a beat against your exposed collarbone, and intently studied him leaning against the wall in the most dominant but shy way you had ever experienced.

He was still completely fixated on you, his eyes consistently switching through the spectrum of green, his mind clearly racing as he examined your every move.

You walked back up to him, a confidence settling in you instead of the previously felt nervousness, and came to a halt in front of his larger body. You studied him closely, the way his eyes devoured you without hiding it, and tipped your head to the side to offer your neck to him. “Go ahead then.”

Without being asked twice he bowed down, his face back in the crook of your neck, his lips back onto their earlier spot as he sucked on the already forming bruise. “Not here. Let me take you home.”

You knew in that moment that you had to shake your head and say no, that it was absolutely the wrong decision to let a random vampire you had met in the most bizarre way just a few minutes prior know where you lived, that being completely alone with him in your apartment would be the most dangerous situation you could have possibly put yourself in. But instead of running away as fast as you could and never looking back, one simple but strong syllable left your lips. “Yes.”

**

“So this is where I live.” you unnecessarily explained after closing the front door and realized that Ben now knew your address but not your name. And that he was a strange vampire that could kill you before you even had the time to scream. But since this had been a mess from the very start, your lack of concern for the situation didn’t seem to bother you as much as it probably should have.

You anxiously watched as he walked through your living room, picking up a necklace from the coffee table you had no memory of buying, and then fixated his glowing green eyes back onto you, a questioning look lingering in them. “Why do you want to be bitten?”

You sighed and took off your shoes to throw them on the pile next to your front door before tying your hair into a bun on top of your head. “Have you ever longed for something you have never even had before?”

His irises switched from bright green to pitch black and back to their original color in the blink of an eye and you would have doubted that it had actually happened if it wasn’t for the dark veins that never left his cheeks and instead stayed firmly in place; a strong reminder of what he actually was: Danger. 

“I just…” you continued after he made no notion to answer and insecurely wrapped your hand around his wrist, another sensation running through you as you dragged him along to your bedroom. The knocking in your head grew louder and louder and you wanted to scream from frustration as the pounding never seemed to take a break. You felt so impossibly close to something that was so endlessly far out of reach. “I feel like I need this. The past few months have been… I guess I just wasn’t really myself and I felt really foggy. All the memories are kind of blurry. But this…” you closed your bedroom door and pushed him backwards so he was falling into a sitting position on the edge of your bed. “This seems to be only crystal clear thing in my head right now. And I want to know why.”

“This is dangerous, you know?” he stated dryly and propped himself back onto his elbows, however making no motion to stop you from straddling his cold thighs or unbuttoning his shirt from the top down.

Your fingers softly ran over the veins on his cheeks and then cupped his jaw as you stared into his eyes; almost searching for something you didn’t know was there. “I know it sounds crazy, but it’s like there is a wall in my head. And I just need to get through it.”

He hummed and pressed his mouth against your exposed neck without any hesitation, his lips strangely knowing exactly where to kiss and where to suck to coax the best and fastest reaction from you.

Your hands ghosted from his face over his jaw and finally stilled on top of his shoulders after you had pushed the thin material of his shirt off of them. You made eye contact with him once again and felt him twitch underneath you as his name fell from your lips so easily as if it had done so a hundred times before. “So, Ben. Are you going to bite me or what?”

**

Ben couldn’t help but sigh. All the memories he had repressed, all the emotions he had not allowed himself to feel for the past months were rising up in him at once. He had had no intention of going home with you when he had first detected your presence, but here he was; a lot weaker than he had expected to be. Just the thought of someone else tasting your blood, of another pair of lips leaving a mark on your beautiful neck, had almost torn him apart. There hadn’t been anything he himself or Joe could have done to prevent this from happening. He was not the kind of being to believe in faith, after all he had witnessed the very worst in the world in his lifetime, but he couldn’t deny that being right here with you was the truest and realest thing he had ever had the chance of knowing.

In a speed only a vampire could utilize he had you positioned underneath him, his legs immediately interlacing with yours, his unmoving chest pressed to your panting one in the most familiar way. It felt to him as if the last few months had never happened, as if you had never stopped mumbling his name in your sleep, as if he had never had to miss you.

His fingers trailed along your forehead down the side of your face and slowly ran along your bottom lip, a small smile playing around the corners of his mouth. He was aware of the fact that he was soft and that you had no idea about the things that connected you to him, but it was okay. For one night he could pretend that you remembered all the little details in the same way he did.

He glanced back to your eyes when you whined against his lips, the sound making the veins under his eyes throb even harder. He enjoyed the feeling, the only thing that was ever pulsing through him anymore and shushed you with his fingertip. “Why are you so impatient, love?” He quickly tapped your nose and laughed at your frown. “I promise I will make it worth your while.”

His eyes darted downward towards your mouth, the other thing he so deeply craved. An unusual nervousness arose in him as he lowered his face to yours, your lips only separated by a few centimeters; so close and yet so far. He closed his eyes, unsure on what was about to come and finally minimized the distance by placing the most gentle kiss against your awaiting lips.

The second your lips touched, a switch flipped inside his mind, all his built up frustration and want and longing now prominent in the forefront of his mind, just waiting to be released. “Fuck” he groaned loudly as he kissed you again, this time more feverishly, his tongue immediately darting into your mouth to feel all of you, to taste you, to claim what had been his all along.

“Say my name.” he breathed, shocked at the dominance asserted by his voice, and growled when you did, his instincts clawing at his mind from the sound of it. God, he wanted to taste you so badly. The sound of your heart beat rushing the blood through your veins was the only thing he could hear and he wanted to give in so much; but he couldn’t. Not yet. If he was only given this one chance, he had to make it last the entirety of the rest of his never-ending life.

You whimpered underneath him and for the first time he realized that you didn’t know what was happening, that you were not familiar with the way his body moved, that you couldn’t pick up the little cues he sent your way subconsciously.

He sighed, this was so close to what he wanted, but yet so different. But it was the nearest thing he was able to get.

His hands played with the fabric of your tight dress and he smirked against your mouth. “Can I take this off?”

“Please.” you eagerly nodded and within a second he had you both completely stripped down, his naked cold body pressed to your hot one. The perfect combination.

He kissed you again, almost frantically, swallowing all the noises you allowed him to have and safe forever. His hands roamed over your body, his fingertip circling the spot between your breast and collarbone. His spot. Not yet.

“Your eyes. They are black.” your voice ripped him from his trance-like state and he quickly diverted his focus back to you, your face a display of fascination like it had been the first time you had seen him. It was.

“Because I can smell your blood.” He kissed along your neck, making sure to give his mark extra attention as he trailed his lips towards the shell of your ear. “And I can hear your heart speeding up just now.” He ran one of his hands down your naked side, your body warmth heating up his palm and finally dipped his fingers between your legs. “I can sense how desperately much you want me.”

He couldn’t help but laugh lightly at your high-pitched moan and retracted his coated fingers from you to wrap them around your wrist instead, guiding your hand to his prominent hard-on pressed against your thigh. “But I want you just as much.”

His mouth fell open with a growl as you began pumping his length, the cold burning in his chest growing stronger and almost painfully, and he realized too late how your eyes were fixed onto his fangs, your free hand already reaching out to touch them.

He felt the piercing of your finger against his teeth and with the single drop that fell from it and onto his tongue a blur of colors and memories fogged his mind. The want in him increased and he could feel himself slowly but steadily lose control. Not only of the situation, but of himself, and that was the dangerous part.

Time seemed to come to a halt and go by in a rush as he allowed his instincts to take over, too tired of fighting his very primal need any longer and he buried his face between your legs. The sound of your coaxed moans mixed with the smell of your blood so close to him turned his mind a into a hazy mess and he barely recognized himself as his tongue automatically fought to please you. He knew exactly what you liked. He knew just where to lick to make you scream and where to touch to make your hips buckle. He knew when to falter, when to tease, when to speed up and when to slow down. And he knew you were about to come undone for him when you clenched around his tongue, his name breathlessly falling from your lips over and over and over.

God, he had missed you.

He rushed up your body, a quick kiss to his spot on your chest on the way. Not yet. You allowed him to kiss you, seemingly not minding the way his lips tasted and he growled again, the scream for blood deafening in his head. “You’re so beautiful.”

“Fuck me, Ben.” you panted underneath him, your cheeks rosy, your body heated up; your heart beat drove him out of his mind.

He chuckled, the gesture clearing his head for a few seconds. “I thought you wanted me to bite you?”

Your eyes met his and the burning in his chest returned as he wondered if you could see the memories playing in his head through the black of his irises, if you could feel the connection between your bodies.

“I want you, Ben.”

His name made him growl again and he pushed himself all the way into you without warning, his lips swallowing up the cries that left your lips as he pounded into you; hitting all the right spots, drilling you into the mattress just the way he knew you liked it.

Your bodies moving in a harsh and fast rhythm, his mouth never left yours, his moans mixing with yours as the screaming in his head grew louder, the blood lust blurring his vision with every sigh that left your lips.

“Ben.. I’m…”

“I know.” he whispered, never slowing down, and began kissing down your jaw and neck, lightly licking along his mark. Once he had reached your collarbone he felt you clench around him, your heart now faster than ever, silencing every other sound in the room for him.

His eyes darting upwards, he scanned your blissful face for one last time and finally surrendered to his instincts completely. Readying himself for the final push, he drove his teeth into his spot on your chest just in time with the final meeting of his hips against yours. Your orgasmic cry of his name mixed with the taste of your blood on his tongue brought him over the edge as well and with a fogged mind he kept drinking you up, unsure on where he ended and you stopped.

He was barely able to stop himself, every cell in his body demanding more of the taste he had deprived himself of for way too long.

With a final lick along your skin he pulled himself back, his mind on high alert and ecstasy at the same time, his body a comfortable warm, your sighs and moans still ringing in his ears.

He watched you as you came down from your high, drinking in the way the blissful smile never left your lips as he ran his bloody fingers softly along the skin on your face. God, he had fucking missed you.

He was about to bite into his thumb to get you healed up, when a hand shot around his arm and dragged his wrist away from his mouth. Confusion written on his face he looked up at you as you pressed a faltering kiss against his fingertips instead. Your mind was clearly still in a hazy and intoxicated state and he allowed you to pull his body upwards to be face to face with you without hesitation.

As your lips met his he hummed lightly, never able to get enough of the warmth of your tongue against his cold one, the taste of your blood still lingering in his mouth.

He once more attempted to pull away and heal you with his blood before it was too late and his mouth fell open when he heard you giggle against him, a string of words leaving you that he had not been expecting to hear at all. “Why are you not waiting like you normally do, Ben?”

**

You rolled your eyes as Ben pricked his thumb against his fang only to swipe it along your wound a second later, the drizzling feeling of healing radiating through you the way you knew too well.

“So you remember then?” he asked when the wound had closed up completely and he sealed it with a gentle kiss right against your skin. “When did you remember?”

You ran your hand through his blond hair, tugging aggressively at the strands the way he liked it and never failed to make him purr and hiss at the same time. “The second you bit me.” Fury slowly started to rise in you after the ecstatic feeling in your brain had ebbed down and the realization of what had happened began to sink in. “I can’t believe you fucking compelled me, Ben.”

“It felt like the right thing to do.” he explained with a groan as he buried his face in your neck, placing soft butterfly kisses all along your skin. “I’m sorry.”

You hit his shoulder, knowing you couldn’t hurt him with it, and frowned. Months. It had been months of you walking around wondering what the hell was wrong with you, more than often doubting your own mind, obsessing over the fact that you had gone absolutely crazy. And it was all his fault. “I spent all this time going completely nuts because of you”

He didn’t react; instead his lips kept nibbling and sucking on your neck, giving you a necklace you wouldn’t be able to take off for a while. “Why did you go to the club?”

You smiled as you repeated his earlier words, a hint of sincerity swinging in your otherwise sarcastic voice. “It felt like the right thing to do.” You gave him a cue to flip you over and he did in lightning speed. Now positioned on top of his hips, you let your fingers run slow circles along his pale cold chest and you looked down at him, your head questioningly propped to the side. “Why didn’t you just stay away from me?”

“I wanted to protect you. You know the underworld is dangerous.” he explained while his fingers began wandering over your ass to settle against your naked waist. He sighed. “And I might have been a little bit jealous I suppose.”

“I don’t actually know.” you cut in harshly, still a little too agitated about the fact that he had tried to erase your mind. You’d get to the jealousy part later. “You have been shielding me from it since the beginning.”

He laughed, his eyes glowing green and bright as his fingernails forcefully dug into your skin. “That is a good thing.”

“I want to see it.” you stated dryly, almost coming to terms with the fact that he had compelled you. That you were in fact not going crazy. That this was all on Ben. God, you wanted to be mad at him so badly, you really did, but you just couldn’t bring yourself to it for some reason.

“No.” he immediately answered, the dominance he so rarely brought out now at forefront. “Have you been listening to a single word I just said? It’s dangerous. You could die.”

On impulse you brought his hand to his right fang, and pierced his fingertip to draw blood before he had the chance to pull back. Daringly you held eye contact with a clearly overwhelmed and simply starring Ben underneath you as you placed his finger against your lips, aware of the sexual innuendo as you sucked it into your mouth, not stopping to lick and circle it with your tongue until you had swallowed every last bit of cold blood that dropped from it.

You grinned smugly at his widened eyes, mischief spelled all over your face, and motioned to get up. “I guess dying won’t be a problem tonight. Come on then, vampire. Show me your world.”


	4. Tears Of Blood

“Remember what I told you?” Ben asked for the twentieth time as he guided you through one street after the other; the roads becoming darker and narrower with every turn.

You rolled your eyes but ultimately nodded before listing the things the vampire had told you over and over again for the past hour. “Don’t make eye contact. Stick to your side.”

“Alright.” He sighed and hadn’t you known better you would have said he was nervous as he led you towards a dark alleyway you had absolutely overlooked until now. It was way past midnight, but the street you found yourself on was crowded with people; red flickering lights gave the atmosphere a looming gloom and you couldn’t help but shiver at the sudden coldness surrounding you.

Ben studied you, worry written on his face, as he kept tugging you along by your interlaced hands. “Are you sure you want this? We can still leave.”

“No. I want this, Ben.” The more you entered the street, the more the world around you seemed to shift. You couldn’t even begin to take it all in at once, your senses absolutely overwhelmed.

You first noticed Joe standing under one of the red and yellow flickering street lights in front of a dark and worn-down building. You probably wouldn’t have admitted it, but seeing a familiar face in this strange crowd relieved you just the tiniest bit. Your eyes subconsciously fell to the guy Joe was heavily involved in a conversation with. You were immediately taken aback by his light skin in contrast to his dark hair and sharp black nails. The closer you got the harder it was to rip your focus off of his eyes that seemed to switch through the color spectrum in a never ending cycle. This must be the demon Ben had been telling you about.

Fascination spelled on your face you came to a halt in front of the two men and looked up at Ben, waiting for him to be the first to speak.

It was, however, the man next to Joe that took the first word with anger swinging in his voice. “Why the hell would you bring a human here, Ben?” he growled, exposing a set of sharp edged teeth that scared and intoxicated you at the same time. “What the fuck is wrong with you?”

Ben held his free hand up in defense, his other tightening the grip on your fingers to an almost painful measure. “Relax, Gwil. She wanted to come here.”

“God, she has you wrapped around her little finger, doesn’t she you dumbass?” Joe cut in to agree with the demon. “Hi, (Y/N).”

You smiled shyly at him, the scene of his teeth stuck neatly into your neck playing in your head instantly, an icy shiver running through you with the memory. “I’m (Y/N).” you then tried introducing yourself to Gwil, who just glared at you with something radiating in his eyes you had never seen before.

“I’m a demon. I know everything about you.” he snapped and then returned his attention back towards the vampire still connected to your sweaty palm. “Ben, what the fuck?”

“I marked her. It’s fine!” Ben protested in a sudden outburst of anger and smoothed your hair off your shoulder to show off the freshly placed bruised at the left side of your neck.

Joe’s dry laugh surprised you and you met his darkened eyes as he practically snarled while shaking his head. “Yeah, that’s gonna help with the vampires, man. What about the other 70% here? They’ll have her for dinner.”

You swallowed at that, unsure on why Ben had secluded that of all information from you. Maybe this hadn’t been such a great idea after all. Had you been childish, naïve, too trusty in the fact that Ben would always save your life no matter what? After all this was a world you basically knew nothing about. But surely Ben would have insisted for you to not do it – might even had compelled you not to – if he had thought you were not going to make it out alive, right?

“Actually.” Ben began in a careful tone of voice, his words swinging with a hint of anxiety. “I was thinking that Gwil would mark her?”

“Is that so?” the demon laughed, mischief already forming in his eyes as for the first time he looked you up and down, one eyebrow raised questioningly.

You simply stared at him, your heart beating as fast as humanly possible, your mind completely wiped like a blank canvas at this point.

“Please?” Ben tried again, his thumb swiping a soft and reassuring rhythm over the back of your hand. Obviously he could tell how you felt; the blood in your veins was probably rushing wild.

Gwil sighed and then lifted his eyes to bore them straight into you. And god you had never felt so lost and found in your entire life before. “Fine. But you owe me big time for that one, man.”

Without further explanation the demon had stepped forwards and positioned himself right in front of you; his tall figure towering over you dangerously.

You tried to continue breathing as fear arose in you; Ben slowly leaving your side to stand next to Joe did not make you feel any better either.

You pressed your lips tightly together to stop yourself from whimpering as a surprisingly warm hand lifted your chin to then ghost over your naked collarbone.

“This is going to hurt.” Gwil whispered so only you could hear, his voice strangely soft, before one of his black long nails ran right below your collarbone, sliding deeply into the skin, blood immediately pooling out of it and running down your chest to soak your tank top with it.

The demon laughed dryly as he took a step back to turn back to Ben; the vampire’s eyes completely blacked out by now. “Be a good boy and open up, Ben.” Gwil hummed and you watched in awe as Ben instantly followed suit, his mouth falling open, a glare in his eyes as Gwil wiped his bloody finger clean on the vampire’s tongue, the red liquid tainting Ben’s pale lips.

Gwil sighed again and had the audacity to wink at you, his entire aura asserting dominance and authority to everyone. “Let’s go have fun then, shall we?”

You followed him on instinct, pain still radiating through the cut on your chest, and you tried not to hiss when Ben moved your shoulder and with it your collarbone to guide you through the crowd of underworlders.

“Sorry about that.” he muttered quietly but sincerely into your ear before pressing a kiss to your shoulder blade from behind. “You are safe now, though. No one fucks with a demon. They have all the power here.”

“Why are you even friends with him to begin with?” you hushed back at him as you allowed the vampire to lead you down a long stony stairwell.

“It helps to have a demon around in this world, believe me.” Joe appeared out of nowhere in front of you and answered in Ben’s place. His irises were darkened as he hungrily eyed the blood now drying on your chest. “You’ll learn soon enough.”

**

The club was buzzing with light and a cold heat you didn’t know how to describe. You were watching the underworlders with wonder, drinking in the way all the bodies were moving in synch, the metallic taste in the air, the way the dimply lit warehouse seemed to blur the picture in front of you ever so slightly.

You were sitting in a booth far against the back, a cold black wall against your back, Ben to your right, his hand situated on your knee in an assuring manner, and Gwil’s tall figure to your left, his thigh neatly pressed against yours ever so lightly. You were still watching the people, the way there appeared to be no shame here; vampires making out in the one corner while people you couldn’t tell who they even were were dancing right next to them. The room was vibrating with lust and passion and you couldn’t get enough of it.

A girl walked by, an apron slung around her slender figure as she cleared a table in one motion, stacking the empty glasses as high as she could before her tablet had run out of room. Your breath got caught in your throat as a third arm appeared from her waist to pick up the remaining empty bottles and your mouth fell open in shock when she disappeared into the crowd towards the bar.

“Did she just..?” you questioned your own sanity as you looked up at Ben who had observed you with an amused smile.

“Shapeshifter.” he stated neutrally, not without a smug grin on his lips, and yelled out a “Finally!” when he spotted Joe emerging from the dancing crowd.

“It’s super packed today. One vodka straight, one with orange juice, and two bloody ones.” Joe rambled off, placing the glasses in front of their respective owners.

You curiously eyed the vampires’ red drinks and then studied the demon take a sip from the clear liquid in his glass like it was water.

“Ask.” Gwil simply said, the moment his shifting eyes focused on you your pulse sped up again involuntarily.

“I- I don’t-“ you stuttered but then caught yourself by taking a deep breath in and exhaling it slowly through your nose. “You don’t live off blood then?”

“No.” The simple syllable combined with the first smile you had ever seen on his face hit you like a brick and you tried to cover up how your breath got caught in your throat. He truly had all the power. Don’t fuck with a demon. You began to realize why. The way he carried himself, the way his mere presence asserted dominance was something so incredibly breath-taking you couldn’t find words to describe it.

And you had questions, so many of them, but you were too afraid to even dare ask. But you still urged to know more, so much more. What he lived off, how he had become a demon, how old he was – he didn’t look older than thirty but in this club that obviously didn’t mean anything.

“I don’t have an age.” he stated as if he had read your mind and Ben’s tightened grip on your upper thigh ripped you from the weird trance you had been in. “I just am. I have always been here. I will always be.”

“Remember when I met you, you were that Russian girl?” Joe interrupted with a smirk on his face and took a sip from his glass, the blood darkening his irises as he released a content sigh. “I liked that look on you.”

“She grew on me.” Ben replied as he laughed along with Joe and for a moment you felt as if you were just sitting at a bar with three friends chatting along. However, at the same time you knew they were referencing something that had happened hundreds of years before you had even been born. A bizarre world indeed.

Gwil cockily raised an eyebrow and then stretched his long arms along the backrest behind your shoulders. “It was time for a change though. I kind of like this body. I know it’s only been fifty years, but it feels good being a man again.”

“Joe just misses lusting over her.” Ben snipped and you couldn’t help but stifle a laugh against his side. In response he pressed a short but sweet kiss against your temple.

Joe propped his head to the side as she stared his vampire friend down with a grin. “Says you who tried compelling her for blood.”

“I couldn’t have known she was Gwil!” Ben argued back and you had to admit you enjoyed their banter. It was strange seeing him be…well, what exactly? Normal was not the right word. Just…comfortable? You loved being around him, but he also always seemed just the tiniest bit tensed whenever he was alone with you. This was different and you couldn’t help but smile fondly at the way he opened up and appeared to glow in this atmosphere.

“What can you do?” you turned to your left to face Gwil who had been following Ben’s and Joe’s discussion in silence like you had. “I mean vampires can compel people and have super speed and stuff. What can demons do?”

A shiver ran down your spine as his colorful eyes pierced into yours and your heart skipped a beat when his low voice rang in your ears without him opening his mouth just once. ‘I can do whatever I want to do, love.’

You bit into your bottom lip, your hand reaching for your glass automatically, the cold alcohol forcing your senses to come back to reality. Holy shit.

‘No need to get vulgar.’ the demon’s voice rang in your head again and you gulped down some more of your drink before placing the glass back down to fidget with the hem of your tank top instead. You glanced at Ben who was still heavily involved in his discussion with Joe, both of them wildly gesticulating with their hands across the table. Was he aware of what was going on with you? How the hell was Gwil doing this?

‘It is fairly easy you know. I can just take a stroll through your head, make you do the things I want.’ Without your doing your hand lifted and placed itself on Gwil’s upper thigh. In shock you ripped it back to your own legs once you had gained control over your arm again. Holy fucking hell.

The demon’s laugh ran through your head, his face never moving as he even tore his eyes from you to follow his friends’ conversation. ‘I can also rummage through your memories. Let’s have a look, shall we?’

Your heart rate sped up instantly when you saw yourself on your back pop up in your mind, the pictures right in front of you, way clearer than the average memory. You studied the way your face distorted in a moan, Ben’s head between your legs doing wonders as usual. You remembered that day quite vividly. It had been storming all day and night and you had spent the entire time in bed with Ben, surrendered to lust and ecstasy together.

The feeling of happiness radiating through you from the memory was replaced by something entirely different when instead of Ben Gwil kissed his way up your naked body, a daring look in his shifting eyes. You were not sure how, but you could feel his warm lips against your chest right now.

On your mind, his hand wandered up to grip your neck and the choking robbed you your ability to breath. How did Ben not notice what was going on here? You watched the demon kiss you again, this time on the lips, a weird vibration going over your mouth as if it had really happened. But it didn’t. You could see Gwil sit next to you, his face in a cocky smirk, casually sipping on his vodka while he was watching the crowd.

You took a deep breath as his imaginary self released your throat, only for his hand to wander downwards to insert a finger into you. You sighed, but quickly covered it up with a cough as you suddenly felt filled up without anyone even touching you. This was too real, this was absolutely surreal even.

‘You can tell me to stop anytime.’ Gwil’s voice rang in your ears over the music of the club and you tried to get yourself to talk without luck. You even tried to get yourself to think, but it was no use. He had more control over you than you yourself had at this point.

‘I’m just messing with you.’ The scene in your head shifted, the demon now lying on his back as you straddled his hips, his length fully buried in you. With every pound into you, you felt your orgasm building and you couldn’t stop yourself from groaning out loud.

This, however, immediately got Ben’s attention as you heard him growl loudly next to you. “Gwil are you in her head? Get the fuck out.”

The demon simply laughed and the pornographic scene in front of your eyes vanished into thin air leaving a weird emptiness in you as he focused his attention on the vampire. “Oh, Ben. I don’t think she has a problem with it. Right, love?”

“Right.” you heard yourself say, but it wasn’t you that had ordered your mouth to utter the word.

Ben growled again, this time deeper and more violent, the veins on his cheeks pulsing in a dark blue. “Gwil, I swear to god. Get the fuck out of her head.”

“Or what?” the demon hissed back, the tension at the table growing heavily as they stared each other down over your body. “What are you gonna do, Ben? I marked her. She is mine for the night. I can do whatever the fuck I want to her.”

You were not sure on what exactly came next, the entire thing happening in the blur of only one second; Ben pushing you aside to jump at Gwil, his hands immediately wrapping around the demon’s throat, anger filling his face.

In a shaking mess you let yourself fall to the floor, cowering under the table as you heard Joe yell at them to stop. You scooted closer to the middle of the table, your hands shaking violently as you listened to groans and punches being thrown over the table top. You couldn’t make out what exactly they were saying, your mind too riled up and foggy to comprehend a single word. All you knew was that your instincts were telling you to get the fuck away from there.

Carefully and slowly you crawled from under the table, only steadying yourself against the wall when you knew the three of them couldn’t see you anymore. What next? You were stranded in a club full of underworlders, all by yourself. So this was the danger Ben had talked about.

You felt heat rising in you and you began to sweat as you realized that a lot of faces were turned towards you all of the sudden. A human, unprotected, and all alone, the ultimate victim. 

Rage bubbled up in your chest as you leaned against the cold black concrete to balance yourself out. Ben had promised not to leave your side, to protect you, and here you were in dire need of his protection, but he was too busy fighting his own friends. Typical. Maybe after all you had been in the wrong to trust him; maybe it was good you finally saw him for who he really was. A dangerous creation of the underworld. How had you ever expected him to put you before him? This was all on you, you had insisted on coming here, but you still couldn’t help but hate him for bringing you.

You wiped the sweaty hair from your forehead as you tried to locate the exit in panic. The cut on your collarbone was hurting and pulsating like crazy and you felt like you were either going to throw up or pass out from fear and adrenaline rushing through you.

The last thing you saw were two pink glowing eyes approaching you from the dark crowd of strangers, when suddenly a pair of arms wrapped themselves around you to hoist you up.

You wanted to scream in panic, for god known whom, but instantly relaxed when you heard Joe’ voice directly next to your ear. “There you are.”

You tried to catch your breath when you were dropped to the ground on the main street a few seconds later. Attempting to get up, the brightness of the regular street light hurting your eyes, your attention shifted to Joe who was crouched on the pavement, crawl marks and cuts littering his skin.

“Fucking hell.” you mumbled as you scooted towards him, your entire body aching as you reached out towards his bleeding body. “Are you alright?”

“I will be. God, Ben is such an idiot.” he hissed as he groaned, pain distorting his beat up face. “We need to get away from here…We need to get away from Gwil.”

You nodded and got up, your head pounding as if two brains were in it and you felt the urge to turn around and return to the club you had just fled from. Was that his doing?

Thankfully, at just this second a cab rounded the corner and you managed to stop it, helping Joe to hoist his body inside; the mark on your chest burned like fire at this point, while a voice in your head screamed angrily at you, your brain about to give out completely.

**

“We need to get this mark off of you.” Joe exclaimed loudly once the cab door had closed behind him and he quickly leaned forward to give the driver the address you told him – not without compelling him not to remember later.

You nodded, your breath still going in a fast pace, your heart beating out of your chest from fear and adrenaline rushing through you as you tried to stay conscious.

The vampire scooted closer, his eyes a pitch black instead of their usual brown and you swallowed as he edged closer with a pained wince; his irises trained on the cut along your collarbone that had already began healing by building a crust over it. “This is going to hurt like hell. I’m sorry.” He blinked up at you, the veins in his cheeks pulsing in a dark blue, and waited for your approving nod to continue.

You rammed your teeth into your bottom lip when Joe began to scratch a part of the crust off, hissing at the feeling of warm blood running down your shivering chest immediately. You were painfully aware of the fact that you were in the back of a moving car, covered in bruises and blood, with a hurt vampire watching a single tear of metallic red liquid drop onto your tank top with hungry eyes.

Joe tore his eyes off of the blood, his hands shaking as he bit into his finger to run its tip along the newly opened cut; the painful drizzle ripping through your body in a heaviness that almost made you want to cry out loud. However, you kept your hands balled into fists to stop yourself from screaming.

The stabbing pulse in your chest soon ebbed out and you leaned your head back against the seat to wipe your hair from your sweaty forehead. “Thanks, Joe.”

“My pleasure.” he grinned sarcastically, his face distorted in an agonizing grimace. He hissed as he shifted, his gaze falling to his cut up arm, the bruise on his cheek now more prominent than before.

“Why aren’t you healing?” you questioned him, your eyes never leaving his torn up body and only noticed you had reached your apartment when the cab driver looked towards the backseat expectantly.

Joe groaned again as his finger pressed against an already forming bruise on his shoulder. “It’s more complicated than that.”

You dug out a bill from your dirty jeans and handed it to the driver, motioning for Joe to get out of the car before you.

When the vampire made no move you ushered him on, your voice suddenly containing more authority than you knew you had in you. “I’m not leaving you here after you saved me, Joe. Get out of this cab or I swear to god.”

He attempted to laugh, the sound coming to a halt in his throat as he winced at the pain in his chest, but ultimately allowed you to guide him towards your front door, his weight steadily balanced on your shoulder.

You somehow managed to get him to lie down on your couch and then stretched your sore arms over your head as you watched him worriedly. There was a rather strange vampire on your couch. Visibly in pain and different stages of hurt when he was supposed to be able to heal himself within seconds. You were neither prepared nor trained for this; but he had saved your life after all. Something you definitely couldn’t say about Ben. Asshole.

“Is there anything I can get you?” you asked, still panting, the palms of your hands so sweaty you had to wipe them onto your jeans. “I don’t know. Alcohol? Coffee? Some bandages?”

“I told you I will be okay. Demon caused injuries take a long time to heal.” he explained calmly although he was clearly still absolutely miserable and leaned his head back against the cushion as he closed his eyes. “And they hurt like hell.” He laughed dryly, slightly shaking at the agony it caused. “Ben didn’t happen to leave any blood here, did he?”

“No, sorry.” you replied as you ran your hands through your hair and trailed them down your neck and jaw mindlessly. Until it hit you. “But I mean… I have blood…in me?”

“No way. Ben could tell.” Joe shook his head as well as possible and blinked his eyes open to meet yours; his irises running through the brown spectrum in a never-ending cycle. “And he is probably already super pissed because I just took you and left.”

“You saved me, Joe!” you protested as you sat down on the ground next to him, your warm hands now placed on his cold arm. “Ben doesn’t own me. I can do whatever I want. You saved me, and I want to help save you.”

“Lovely.” he snorted and shivered again which only concerned you more since you knew vampires couldn’t really feel the cold. “I appreciate it. But even if I wanted to I couldn’t bite you right now.”

“I have knives.” you stated, your words leaving no space for arguing, and you stood up to walk towards the kitchen when you heard his voice ring behind you.

“Would you mind taking an aspirin beforehand? It doesn’t work if I take it.”

You shook your head in wonder but still managed to find a kitchen knife, a package of aspirin, and your first aid kit within a minute. Swallowing the aspirin dry you sat down on the free space on the couch that Joe had offered you by scooting away in a wincing mess. You smiled anxiously at him, his eyes half-opened, his normally so strongly towering frame a puddle against the cushions. Where you really going to do this?

“You don’t have to. I’ll make it somehow.” he repeated again but you quickly shushed him by grabbing the knife and running it along the back of your forearm, your lips tightly pressed together to not make any noise.

You only hissed at the stinging pain for a few second and then extended your arm towards his face, the blood already beginning to pool on the surface of your skin.

You studied carefully how the red heavy liquid rolled from your arm directly onto his lips and couldn’t help but smile when his tongue darted out to lick it off, a deep groan escaping him after the first taste already.

After about a minute of blood slowly but surely dropping into his mouth, he managed to sit up. His side propped up against you he held your arm in both of his hands and then met your eyes for approval.

You understood immediately and you nodded insecurely as he licked a thick stripe along the cut to collect blood from it; his darkened eyes not leaving yours for one second. It shouldn’t have felt this intimate, but somehow it did and you couldn’t help but sigh when the adrenalin still pumping through your veins transitioned into a calm and relaxed feeling; the anxiety being replaced with a sensation of warmth and comfort. You waited for the waves to come, for hotness and coldness rushing through you at once. However, the ecstasy never came. Instead, you only experienced yourself falling closer and closer into Joe, one of his arms now protectively wrapped around your side to steady you as he retrieved more and more power, the bruise on his cheek already starting to fade away into nothingness.

You never noticed yourself passing out, but you woke up in wonderment when you realized you were on your bed, carefully tucked under your heavy blankets, your boots neatly placed next to each other on the floor.

“Hello sleepyhead.” Joe’s voice ripped you from falling asleep once again and it was only then when you noticed him sitting on the armchair, his arms crossed, the cuts on them almost completely healed.

You yawned and stretched as you checked your arm, the skin already closed up. He had healed you again. “Were you watching me sleep?”

“I wanted to make sure you were okay.” he responded, his brown eyes intently trained on you the entire time. “Are you okay?”

“Think so.” You mumbled and tried to move again, your tank top clinging to your drenched body in an uncomfortable way. “I am just really really hot.”

With the blink of an eye Joe sat next to you, his cold body engulfing yours, the coolness of his skin immediately soothing the feeling of burning up.

The two of you stayed that way for a few minutes and you sighed as you leaned your head against his shoulder, the cold against your feverish forehead doing wonders.

“I wanted to thank you.” he finally muttered against your body. “For letting me drink from you. I didn’t want to say it, but I was pretty fucked.”

You chuckled against him and managed to peak up at him from his embrace, feeling completely safe for the first time that night. “Really? I couldn’t tell.”

“Shut up. I am trying to be nice here, human.” he laughed back, his voice quiet, the normally asserting dominance and annoyance now gone. “Anyway. I was saying… Thank you for helping me although you didn’t have to. I can tell why Ben keeps you around.”

“Speaking off.” you yawned again, the vibration of it making Joe giggle in a beautiful sound. “Have you heard from the idiot vampire that abandoned me in a club filled with dangerous creatures to fight a demon?”

“I haven’t. I texted him you are safe but he never replied. Sorry. I am sure he is fine, though. He always is.” Joe sighed and then turned your chin so you were forced to meet his eyes. Hadn’t you known better you had thought he was going to kiss you. “I need to tell you something…I know Ben and you are like…friends? Maybe more? But what he is too scared to tell you is that vampires cannot fall in love… So I don’t know what you want from Ben, but he cannot have feelings for you ever… Don’t tell him I told you though.”

“I won’t.” you smiled in a forced manner as a reply and swallowed down the knot forming in your throat. “Thanks for telling me.”

He nodded and you cuddled closer into his cold chest although you didn’t even feel hot anymore. Your mind started to wander as you mulled things over in your head. Weirdly enough you had never even considered the fact that you might have feelings for the attractive blond vampire. So far you had just assumed the magical pull you felt towards him was your body and mind chasing the highs that he was able to give you. You had never thought that maybe it was your heart that craved him and not your apparent addiction to his bites. But did it really? You liked Ben, how couldn’t you?

But right now right here all feelings there might have been were overshadowed by him leaving you all alone in that club. And you just couldn’t manage to shake that feeling of pure terror and vulnerability off of you.

“Hey Joe?” you asked and wiggled up to look at him again, your mind quickly flashing back to the time he almost choked you to death upon first meeting him. Funny how things turned out since you now felt completely protected by him. “Since we are friends now… do you mind staying for a bit longer?”

**

The next time you awoke you were alone in your room; however, the loud shouting match in your living room was audible very clearly.

You managed to get up, all your limbs sore and in pain with every step; your body ached for a shower. In spite, you managed to drag yourself to the living room, leaning against the doorframe as Ben’s darkened eyes flickered from Joe to you, his mouth shutting close immediately.

“Ben.” you smiled sarcastically, lips tightly pressed together. “Are you checking to see if I am still alive?”

“I’m sorry.” he answered instantly, his hands running through his short hair, and you could tell he meant it. But you still weren’t even close to forgiving him. “I shouldn’t have left your side.”

“Left my side?!” you laughed dryly and snorted, your hands wandering to your hips as you pushed yourself off the doorway to make your way towards him. He looked bruised, but a lot better than Joe had last night. “You abandoned me, Ben. You literally pushed me aside! I could have died! You know what? I probably would have if it wasn’t for Joe.”

“I said I am sorry.” he repeated, this time asserting more dominance, but you simply shrugged it off.

“I trusted you!” you almost yelled at him, the whimper in your voice giving away how hurt you actually were as your next words came out in a pained whisper. “I was so scared, Ben.”

“I-…just…when Gwil did that to you I-“ he began, but never finished. Instead he stepped forward in human speed, each step sounding heavier than the one before.

You studied him carefully as you met him in the middle of the room, Joe had already disappeared without you realizing it, and ended directly in front of him, his broad chest towering in front of you. “You what, Ben?”

He fidgeted with the neckline of his bloodied dress-shirt and then ran a finger through his messy blond hair; not achieving the effect it normally had on you. You were so fucking mad at him. For everything. And yes, maybe you were mad at yourself too; for wanting to go see his world in the first place. But mainly you were mad that you had been so stupid to trust a vampire, to believe in one of them.

“Him doing that, I just snapped.” he started another attempt at an explanation as his cold hands settled onto your waist. “You are mine and I didn’t-“

“That’s why you got so pissed off?” you cut in angrily and took a step back to distance yourself from his embrace, his arms lifelessly falling to his sides. “Not because a fucking demon was messing inside my head. But because it wasn’t you?” You groaned again, unable to handle the rage and fire rising inside you all of the sudden. How freaking dare he? “Just to get one thing clear here, Ben. You don’t fucking own me. I own myself. And I am not yours. Understood?”

“I-“ he started, but you were too enraged to let him continue.

“I needed you to protect me because you cared. Not because you see me as some kind of property. God, I am so fucking pissed right now!” You angrily groaned again, your hands running through your already messy and dirty hair as you leaned against the back of the couch to stabilize yourself.

He sighed, his eyes a sad shimmering green when he suddenly stood right in front of you, his cold lips pressed to your warm ones firmly and in a closed-mouth-kiss. “I’m sorry, okay? Tell me what I can do to make it up to you.”

You could tell he meant it. But then after all, what did he really mean anymore? How could you know what was right and what wasn’t, coming from his mouth? You collected all your will-power and pushed against his chest with both hands, your eyes staring straight ahead into his. “You can leave.”

“(Y/N). I-“ his mouth fell open as he stared at you, studying your reaction to him still being so close. And you wanted to fall into his chest until everything was okay again. But all you felt was incredibly angry. And cold. So fucking cold.

Your next words came out in a chocked whisper and you struggled to not sound absolutely devastated. “You heard me.”

“Please don’t make me leave.” he begged, his voice quiet and desperate.

You sighed, leaning against the couch as you looked at him questioningly, the hurt running freely through you now. “And why not?”

He made a motion to close the distance again, but seemed to change his mind in the last second, instead opting to walk towards the door frame with a pleading sparkle in his glowing green eyes. “Because I love you.”

You snorted as you shook your head in disbelief; a cold shiver running down your spine. First he abandoned you and then he possessed the audacity to say something like that?

You felt anger rise in you anew and you took a deep breath; his confession hurting you more than you could have ever expected it to.

Especially since you were aware of the fact that it was a total fucking lie.


End file.
